While wins came Honda's way every season, and podium positions were frequent, it had been a long time since HRC looked like its rider would end the season atop the points. Hayden's championship, which came as a result of solid finishes, not domination, was the first since Rossi left, and in the seasons to follow, the handful of victories was not what the company wanted. Corporations go racing to demonstrate their superiority, and superiority wasn't being reflected in the results table or in the headlines.
It was worse - way worse - in Formula One. In 2006, Nakamoto was named Senior Technical Director for the company's Formula One program. According to various reports at the time, Nakamoto inherited a car that was marginally capable, with one win in 18 starts, and a wind tunnel that was broken. 2007 saw Honda score no podiums in F1 competition, and 2008 saw only one.
It was the nadir of Nakamoto's career with Honda. He'd been with the company since his late 20s, and had devoted his professional life to Honda and motorcycle road racing. He joined the company in 1983, and was quickly assigned to the RS125 and RS250 GP bike projects. During his tenure, the Honda became a consistent race winner, a bike that was always a threat to win a World Championship. From 1984 to 1996, Honda won 11 125cc and 250cc GP World Championships.
In 1997, he was named Large Project Leader for Honda's World Superbike competitor, the RVF750, which immediately took John Kocinski to the title and Honda to the manufacturer championship. It was the first Superbike championship for Honda since the formative years of the series and Fred Merkel's back-to-back titles on an RC30. Annoyed by a rules structure that many felt favored Ducati's V-twins, in 2000 Honda put Nakamoto in charge of a V-twin project of its own, the VTR1000SP, better known as the RC51. It won the title the first time out with Colin Edwards aboard, and won again in 2002.
Nakamoto was not a man who took losing well, and he knew how to go hunting for titles at the highest levels of motorcycle road racing. 2009, Nakamoto's first season at the helm, was all about Yamaha. In 2010, longtime HRC MotoGP soldier Dani Pedrosa suddenly doubled the number of wins from the previous season. The next year, Honda poached Casey Stoner from Ducati and immediately won the MotoGP title. With Stoner injured for much of 2012, Pedrosa came within a tire warmer malfunction of winning the championship. These were the performances that made a manufacturer look good. Honda's machinery was so good that fans of the sport wailed like infants that the racing was boring because of the amazing job HRC had done with its bike and its team.
For the whiners, it got worse.
Stoner retired, but Honda had laid claim to one Marc Marquez, who proceeded to then take three of the next four MotoGP titles, and the one he didn't win he finished with the second-highest number of wins. Nakamoto knew that it was the combination of machine and man that won titles, and Marquez could help an under-performing machine look better than it was.
Nakamoto is leaving HRC, retiring due to his age. HRC has named three people to do his job. It is a testament to his leadership, and a loss to the sport to have such a single-minded individual leave the paddock. When Nakamoto showed up, it was to kick ass, make Honda look good and chew bubble gum, and someone invariably forgot the bubble gum.
Two comments from Nakamoto illustrate why he deserves the title of Racing Boss:
Back when the whining about "boring" racing was reaching a fevered pitch in 2012, Nakamoto was asked about the entertainment MotoGP provided. His comment was simple: This was of no concern to Honda. Winning was what mattered, not bread and circuses for the minions.
When Rossi left Honda and won titles with Yamaha, he was famously quoted as saying that the rider mattered more than the machine. When Rossi fell flat on his face at Ducati, Nakamoto took the opportunity to kick him when he was down. "After he (Rossi) left Honda, has written a book, saying that the driver has more of the bike. Now it has to prove it," Nakamoto told GPOne.
The joy of sport is that it is unfettered competition where the goal is to prove that you are the best. Under Nakamoto's reign, Honda was so dominant that many claimed the company would destroy MotoGP. It's perhaps the highest praise you can offer Nakamoto for a lifetime of service to his company and his dedication to racing's highest ideal - winning.
