Yukio Kagayama

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Yukio Kagayama was born in Yokohama, Japan on the 4 May 1974. He began motorcycle racing in 1990, spending many years in the All-Japan Superbike Championship, finishing 4th in 2001. In 2003 he raced in the British Superbike Championship for Rizla Suzuki, alongside double British champion John Reynolds, and had won 3 races (and many friends) when he crashed heavily at Cadwell Park, a crash which could have killed or disabled him.

He returned for the start of 2004, finishing 3rd in the championship despite not being at full fitness early in the season (a further crash caused a broken collarbone, which can't have helped). He has also made various starts for Suzuki in 250cc, 500cc and MotoGP, scoring several top 10 finishes in these wildcard rides.

[edit] WSBK

For 2005 he joined 1996 WSBK champion Troy Corser in the Alstare Suzuki team in the championship, and won races on the GSX-R1000, riding on largely unfamiliar circuits against some of the world's top riders. He finished 6th overall, and did enough to retain his ride for 2006. In the first race he collided with Noriyuki Haga while battling for the lead on the final lap. He then had a run of poor results, before taking a third and a fourth at Misano, and then stunning the field with a double win from the second row at Brno, nearly doubling his points total in 1 weekend.