Hideo Kanaya
Hideo Kanaya was a Japanese professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.
Kanaya began his Grand Prix career in 1967 and won his first Grand Prix at the 1972 250cc German Grand Prix on a standard Yamaha 250 TD3. In 1973, Kanaya and Jarno Saarinen raced the first four-cylinder, two-stroke Yamaha YZR500 0W20 in the 500cc world championship, and water cooled YZR250 0W17 in the 250cc world championship. After Saarinen's death in the 250cc race at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Yamaha decided to with draw its factory team from the remainder of the 1973 season and Hideo Kanaya was sent back to Japan.
He was due to come back to GP in 1974, as team mate to Giacomo Agostini, and he was entered as a factory rider, alongside Agostini, Motohashi and Länsivuori, in the Daytona 200 race early in the season. Kanaya was injured at Daytona and could finally not race in Europe in 1974.
Kanaya's best season was in 1975, when, in spite of being entered only in the first five GPs before being sent back to his testing duties in Japan, he won two Grand Prix and finished third in the 500cc world championship behind his Yamaha team-mate, Giacomo Agostini and MV Agusta's Phil Read. He also won the Macau Grand Prix in 1975.Points system from 1950 to 1968:
| Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Points | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Points system from 1969 onwards:
| Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Points | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Year | Class | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Points | Rank | Wins |
| 1967 | 125cc | Kawasaki | ESP
- | GER
- | FRA
- | IOM
- | NED
- | BEL
- | DDR
- | CZE
- | FIN
- | ULS
- | NAT
- | CAN
- | JPN
3 | 4 | 12th | 0 |
| 1972 | 250cc | Yamaha | GER
1 | FRA
3 | AUT
- | NAT
- | IOM
- | YUG
- | NED
10 | BEL
- | DDR
- | CZE
- | SWE
- | FIN
- | ESP
- | 26 | 11th | 1 |
| 1972 | 350cc | Yamaha | GER
3 | FRA
- | AUT
2 | NAT
5 | IOM
- | YUG
4 | NED
6 | | DDR
- | CZE
- | SWE
- | FIN
- | ESP
- | 41 | 8th | 0 |
| 1972 | 500cc | Yamaha | GER
- | FRA
- | AUT
- | NAT
- | IOM
- | YUG
- | NED
- | BEL
4 | DDR
- | CZE
- | SWE
- | FIN
- | ESP
- | 8 | 22nd | 0 |
| 1973 | 250cc | Yamaha | FRA
2 | AUT
2 | GER
2 | IOM
- | YUG
- | NED
- | BEL
- | CZE
- | SWE
- | FIN
- | ESP
- | | | 36 | 7th | 0 |
| 1973 | 500cc | Yamaha | FRA
3 | AUT
2 | GER
- | IOM
- | YUG
- | NED
- | BEL
- | CZE
- | SWE
- | FIN
- | ESP
- | | | 22 | 8th | 0 |
| 1975 | 350cc | Yamaha | FRA
- | ESP
3 | AUT
1 | GER
- | NAT
- | IOM
- | NED
- | | | FIN
- | CZE
- | YUG
- | | 25 | 10th | 1 |
| 1975 | 500cc | Yamaha | FRA
2 | | AUT
1 | GER
4 | NAT
3 | IOM
- | NED
- | BEL
- | SWE
- | FIN
- | CZE
- | | | 45 | 3rd | 1 |
