Akira Yanagawa

Akira Yanagawa (柳川明, Yanagawa Akira, born July 15, 1971) is a motorcycle road racer from Japan. He won three World Superbike Championship races and finished on the podium on 20 further occasions.

Career

He started racing on mini-bikes before becoming Japan's 250cc champion in 1989. He moved to his homeland's Superbike championship in 1993. By 1997 Kawasaki considered him ready for the Superbike World Championship.

Initial testing displays^[1] and results suggested that they were not wrong. At the A1-Ring, Yanagawa became the first Japanese rider to win a Superbike World Championship race outside his homeland, also winning Sugo later in the year to come 4th overall. 1998 was dominated by two huge crashes. At Monza the bike hurtled through the gravel at the Ascari Chicane before catching fire due to a burst fuel line, with Yanagawa nowhere near it. At Laguna Seca he was running 2nd when Doug Chandler's wild card Kawasaki went out of control on the run into the Corkscrew corner and harpooned Yanagawa. It was a frightening moment, yet Yanagawa only missed one further round. He was classified 2nd in that race, as the restart was abandoned following another pile-up. On his return he took two 4th places, and followed this with two podium results at Sugo. This was good for 7th overall.

In 1999 and 2000 he came 5th overall, with a win at Sugo and five third places in 1999. He was 9th in 2001, crashing on lap 1 of his 100th WSBK race at Sugo but scoring two 3rds at Monza,^[2] as Kawasaki gradually lost interest in the Superbike World Championship, focusing instead on developing a MotoGP bike for 2002.^[3] Yanagawa raced in Japan's Superbike series while testing this, and briefly raced it before returning to a testing role.^[4] He has continued in the All-Japan series, leading it in 2007 before losing out to Atsushi Watanabe, and also entered for a one-off MotoGP round at Motegi.^[5]

Career statistics

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

Year	Make	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		Pos.	Pts
Year	Make	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	Pos.	Pts
1994	Suzuki	GBR	GBR	GER	GER	ITA	ITA	SPA	SPA	AUT	AUT	INA	INA	JPN 11	JPN 18	NED	NED	SMR	SMR	EUR	EUR	AUS	AUS					47th	5
1996	Kawasaki	SMR	SMR	GBR	GBR	GER	GER	ITA	ITA	CZE	CZE	USA	USA	EUR	EUR	INA	INA	JPN Ret	JPN DNS	NED	NED	SPA	SPA	AUS	AUS			NC	0
1997	Kawasaki	AUS 4	AUS Ret	SMR Ret	SMR 5	GBR DNS	GBR DNS	GER 8	GER 2	ITA 8	ITA Ret	USA 10	USA 5	EUR 5	EUR 4	AUT 2	AUT 1	NED 8	NED 7	SPA 4	SPA 4	JPN 1	JPN Ret	INA 4	INA 2			4th	247
1998	Kawasaki	AUS 5	AUS 5	GBR 5	GBR 16	ITA Ret	ITA 6	SPA 13	SPA 7	GER 4	GER 5	SMR 5	SMR 5	RSA 6	RSA 5	USA 2	USA DNS	EUR	EUR	AUT 4	AUT 4	NED 7	NED 6	JPN 4	JPN 2			7th	210
1999	Kawasaki	RSA 6	RSA 5	AUS 5	AUS 6	GBR 5	GBR 4	SPA 2	SPA 2	ITA 7	ITA 5	GER Ret	GER 3	SMR 3	SMR 3	USA 3	USA 12	EUR 6	EUR 5	AUT DNS	AUT DNS	NED 6	NED 4	GER 3	GER 4	JPN 3	JPN 1	5th	308
2000	Kawasaki	RSA DNS	RSA DNS	AUS 9	AUS 6	JPN Ret	JPN 6	GBR 7	GBR 5	ITA 3	ITA 3	GER 2	GER Ret	SMR 5	SMR 6	SPA 10	SPA 12	USA 6	USA 5	EUR 9	EUR 5	NED 6	NED 2	GER 4	GER 3	GBR 6	GBR 7	5th	247
2001	Kawasaki	SPA 8	SPA 6	RSA 5	RSA Ret	AUS 4	AUS C	JPN Ret	JPN 11	ITA 3	ITA 3	GBR 14	GBR 8	GER 12	GER 10	SMR 5	SMR Ret	USA Ret	USA 8	EUR 10	EUR 8	GER 4	GER 9	NED 8	NED 6	ITA DNS	ITA DNS	9th	170
2002	Kawasaki	SPA	SPA	AUS	AUS	RSA	RSA	JPN 6	JPN 6	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	GER	GER	SMR	SMR	USA	USA	GBR	GBR	GER	GER	NED	NED	ITA	ITA	23rd	20
2010	Kawasaki	AUS	AUS	POR	POR	SPA	SPA	NED	NED	ITA	ITA	RSA	RSA	USA	USA	SMR	SMR	CZE	CZE	GBR 19	GBR 19	GER	GER	ITA	ITA	FRA	FRA	NC	0

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Number	Race	Plcd
2002	MotoGP	Kawasaki	Kawasaki Racing Team	48	1	NC
2003	MotoGP	Kawasaki	Kawasaki Racing Team	48	2	NC
2007	MotoGP	Kawasaki	Kawasaki Racing Team	87	1	NC
Total					4

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos.
2002	MotoGP	Kawasaki	JPN	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC Ret	MAL	AUS	VAL			NC
2003	MotoGP	Kawasaki	JPN 18	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT Ret	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC	MAL	AUS	VAL			NC
2007	MotoGP	Kawasaki	QAT	SPA	CHN	TUR	FRA	ITA	CAT	GBR	NED	GER	USA	CZE	RSM	POR	JPN Ret	AUS	MAL	VAL	NC

References

External links

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