Motourage

Ryuichi Kiyonari

HM Plant Honda’s Josh Brookes will be back in the seat of his CBR1000RR Superbike at this weekend’s 10th round of the British Superbike Championship at Croft, paired with the former HM Plant Honda double BSB Champion Ryuichi Kiyonari who is making a sensational return to the championship just for this weekend.

The 26-year-old Japanese rider will ride for the HM Plant Honda team, with whom he won the title in 2006 and 2007, in place of the injured Glen Richards who is still recovering from a broken leg.

Kiyo has been racing for multiple world champions Ten Kate Honda, in the World Superbike Championship for the past two seasons, and the ride is a one-off as Glen is expected to return to the Honda squad at the following round at Silverstone,

The former MotoGP rider has an impressive pedigree at the 2.125-mile North Yorkshire track, the home round for Honda team sponsor, HM Plant, winning four times – once in each of 2005 and 2006 and then taking the double ahead of his teammate Jonathan Rea in 2007.

Commenting on his forthcoming BSB outing, Kiyo said, “I’m really excited to be riding for the HM Plant Honda team again. I’m also very happy to race in BSB and especially at Croft. I love this circuit and won both races when I last raced there in 2007.”

Having missed two rounds of the championship due to injury and also a penalty at Mallory Park, Josh Brookes is fired up to get back and make the most of the remaining three rounds of the season. Josh commented, “I’m totally fired up and ready to go. I had a day riding a standard road bike around Croft last week to learn the circuit which will help me a lot this coming weekend. Before going there I had it in my mind that I wouldn’t like the track, but having now ridden it I really like it and the flowing nature, so can’t wait for the event now to get back into my stride and put me and HM Plant Honda ‘Blade back up with the front runners.”

Team-mate Glen, who was due to return to his seat at Croft, commented, “I rode a lot of laps of Croft last week with Josh on a standard road bike and whilst I could ride round there all day, I really don’t feel my leg is fit to race yet so it would be foolish to come back too soon and risk further injury, but I’ll certainly be back at Silverstone.”

World Superbike racer and fellow Aussie Karl Muggeridge stood in for Glen at the previous two rounds of Brands Hatch and Cadwell Park, but the HM Plant Honda team didn’t want to stand in the way of Karl’s opportunity to race at this weekend’s Bol D’or endurance race, therefore employing the services of the familiar Kiyo.

Havier Beltran, HM Plant Honda Team Manager said, “We only needed a rider for one race weekend. Kiyo was free, has a great history at Croft and also knows the Honda Fireblade Superbike well, so he was the perfect choice. Kiyo is also experienced with bike set-up and development so we’ll also be utilising those skills this weekend as well.”