MotoGP news

Yanagawa to join Kawasaki at Motegi

The Kawasaki Racing Team will field a third rider at the Japanese round of the MotoGP world championship next month. Current leader of the All Japan Superbike Championship, Akira Yanagawa, will join Randy de Puniet and Anthony West, on a Ninja ZX-RR at the Motegi circuit as, for the second time this year, the team will put three riders on the grid.

Like Roger Lee Hayden, who rode to an impressive tenth place as a wild card for Kawasaki at Laguna Seca back in July, Yanagawa is looking forward to pitting himself against the best riders in the world at his home circuit.

Yanagawa now rides a Kawasaki ZX-10R for Team Green in the Japanese superbike series. After five rounds, he has claimed one victory, at Tsukuba circuit, and a second place at Autopolis, putting him two points ahead of nearest rival, Atsushi Watanabe, with just three rounds remaining.

Akira Yanagawa said about this opportunity offered to him by Kawasaki: "The first time I raced the Ninja ZX-RR was also at Motegi, when Kawasaki made their long awaited return to Grand Prix racing after an absence of more than two decades. On that occasion I crashed out of the race, so I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to finally finish what I started five years ago. I'm under no illusions about how tough it will be, racing against the very best riders in the world, but I hope that I will be able to finish in the points and also provide important feedback for Kawasaki's development engineers. For me, race day will be about enjoying the chance to race the latest version of Kawasaki's Ninja ZX-RR and finishing as high up the order as I can."

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