AKIYOSHI TAKES FIRST WIN IN JAPAN
01 November 2005 - Suzuki Racing

Team Yoshimura Suzuki''s Kousuke Akiyoshi raced to his first career win and the team''s first of the season in Sunday''s final eighth-round All Japan Superbike Championship event at Motegi.

The factory MotoGP development rider started the 18-lap race in second position behind team mate Atsushi Watanabe and moved to the front on lap three before pulling out a three second lead.

On the eighth lap, Watanabe was passed by Shin-ichi Nakatomi (Yamaha) and Shin-ichi Ito (Honda), who then moved to second but could not close on the Suzuki rider.

Said Akiyoshi: ''In the last two races I got a pole position but I couldn''t keep my position in the race because of some problems. But today I made a good start and had no problems. I would like to thank Suzuki and Yoshimura for giving me the opportunity to enter the race.''

Team manager Fujio Yoshimura added: ''Akiyoshi did Great job! It is only his third race this season but he showed his true potential with a very good performance. We were a little disappointed for Atsushi Watanabe but overall we feel very happy to give Suzuki this big win.''

SUPERBIKE RESULTS:

1 Kousuke Akiyoshi (Yoshimura Suzuki).
2 Shin-ichi Ito (Honda).
3 Tatsuya Yamaguchi (Honda).
4 Shin-ichi Nakatomi (Yamaha).
5 Akira Yanagawa (Kawasaki).
6 Atsushi Watanabe (Yoshimura Suzuki).
7 Osamu Deguchi (Honda).
8 Yoshiteru Konishi (Honda).
9 Chojun Kameya (Honda).
10 Shogo Moriwaki (Honda).

Final Standings: 1 Ito 140 2 Yamaguchi 111, 3 Yanagawa 111, 4 Nakatomi 94, 5 Tsujimura 91, 6 Watanabe 71.

Report and photos: Hiro Nakamura.

www.suzuki-racing.com

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