•Tournament: The All Japan Road Race Championship & Third Motegi Road Race Championship
•Category: J-GP2/Ladies150
•Date: Friday 27th May to Sunday 29th May
•Place: Twin Ring Motegi (Tochigi Prefecture)
•Course: Dry Condition

Despite the fact that it was May, the Third All Japan Road Race Championship was held at Motegi under the hot glittering summer sun.
From Team Norick, Kamiwada participated in the J-GP2 and Miu Nakahara participated in Ladies 150 of the Third Motegi Race Championship that was held together at the All Japan Road Race Championship.

Kamiwada had difficulty at first with his set-ups at practice sessions but recovered his energy before the qualifying round and set a personal best time at Motegi. But came 8th in the J-GP2 qualifying round where he had to compete with many rivalry competitions.
At the final race the tires also faced harsh conditions due to the rise in temperature. It turned out to be a tempestuous race with many falls but Kamiwada was in great control of the machine and made the goal.
It was Kamiwada’s first experience to come 3rd! He was up on the podium!

Nakahara competed in the Ladies150 with YZF-R15. When Nakahara competed in the JP250 she was on a YZF-R25. This year she is riding two different machines for different races.
With R15, she came 2nd in the qualifying round with a time of 2min. 38 sec.558. She broke the time at the last minute of the goal.
At the final, the race was nip and tuck but at the last moment she came 1st place.
Both Kamiwada and Nakahara gave smashing results.

There are still solutions to be solved, however no doubt these results will lead us to our next step.
The whole team members are doing their best to make good use of this experience in the next round we will be participating in SUGO.
We greatly appreciate your warm hospitality!

Takumi Kamiwada

•All Japan Road Race Championships J-GP2
Final Results: 3rd Best Time: 1’54.514

Comment:

I didn’t do well at practice sessions at first and tried all sorts of things starting from modifying set-ups to changing machines.
But nothing worked. I couldn’t fill the gap between top riders and myself before the racing week started.
On the day before the qualifying round set-ups went well.
At the qualifying round I set a personal best time but turned out eighth.

I made a good start at the final race but lost speed when chaos occurred on 1st and second corner.
At first I was doing good following the top group but after coping with so much falls and making a mistake by myself, I gradually drew apart from the top group.
But I thought it was my last chance to catch up to them, so I concentrated onward and did my best at full force. But the tires were in a hard condition and I fell behind again. My front tires almost fell over continuously.
I couldn’t increase speed. I had to patiently control the tires.
One of the top racers made a fall and I made the goal in 3rd place.
It’s my first time to be 3rd and I’m proud of myself to stand on the podium after such a rough and difficult race.

However I have a lot of tasks for my next race.
Things like to firmly understand machine set-ups and many more.
I’m happy about todays result but I’m eager to do my best at SUGO so that I can stand in the same position again.
I highly appreciate the support of my fans, sponsor and team mates that are here with me today. I would like to thank everyone for letting me come this far.
Thank you very much!

Takumi Kamiwada

Miu Nakahara

•Motegi Road Race Championships Ladies 150
Final Results: Champion Best Time: 2’38.154

Comment:

[Saturday 28th May]
I had a chance to ride on the race course so I made final adjustments.
But I couldn’t shorten my time so I set-up the sprocket to emphasize on acceleration.

[Sunday 29th May]
At the Qualifying round, I entered the course before other riders to make a time attack.
The modification to the sprocket gave me excellent acceleration and helped to raise time.
But other riders were shortening their time as well and I found that I was in fifth place.
I knew that I wouldn’t make it to the final in that position so I made a time attack during the last two minutes.
As a result, I came 2nd at 2min.38sec.558 and made it to the finals.

At the final race, I succeeded in making a good start and was the first to enter the corner.
To keep top place, I tried to break myself apart from the machine behind me but distance lessened and I got passed by at the straight line just before the 3rd corner.
But I pulled back when I was braking at the 3rd corner.
After that I got passed by again at the rising point before the S shaped road but pulled back again when braking at the 90 degrees corner and came 1st place.
From that point, I only thought of winning the race.
Finally I outrun and won.

It has been a hard year for me this year but I think this has made a good current.
I’d like to drift in this current and make good results in the latter half of the year.
I thank Webike Team Norick Yamaha fans, supporters of the team and sponsors for your kind support.
For the next race I will be participating in JP250 at the All Japan Road Race held at SUGO.
I’ll do my best to give good results in the future.
Miu Nakahara

photo by Ishizaki Nobuki