Makoto Tamada

Makoto Tamada was born on 4 November 1976 in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan, and is a former professional motorcycle racer who now works as a rider instructor at the Suzuka Racing School. After a junior career in minibikes he won a regional 250cc championship in 1994, spent four years in the main Japanese 250cc series and entered the MFJ Superbike championship in 1999. He became internationally known as a wild card at the Sugo round of the Superbike World Championship in 2001, where he upset the regular riders to win both races, and he won another race there in 2002. That earned him a place in MotoGP from 2003, first with Pramac Honda and then Camel Honda, for whom he won at Rio and Motegi in 2004 and finished sixth overall. He later rode for Konica Minolta Honda and Tech 3 Yamaha and then moved to the Superbike World Championship with Kawasaki, and is one of the few riders to have won races in both series.