is a Japanese

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

road racer. He is a two-time champion in the All-Japan Superbike Championship, and has competed sporadically in the MotoGP World Championship. He is known in his native Japan as a competitor in the MFJ All Japan Road Race GP250 Championship, and most notably the All Japan Superbike championship, where he has enjoyed success with the Yoshimura Suzuki team riding a

Suzuki GSX-R1000 The Suzuki GSX-R1000 is a supersport motorcycle made by Suzuki. It was introduced in 2001 to replace the GSX-R1100 and is powered by a liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder, four-stroke engine although originally from 2001 to 2004. History 20 ...

. In July 2007 he, along with

Yukio Kagayama is a Japanese professional motorcycle road racer. He began his motorcycle racing career competing in the Japanese national championships before racing internationally in Grand Prix motorcycle racing, the Superbike World Championship as well a ...

, won the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race on a Yoshimura Suzuki bike.

Career

National racing

Akiyoski made his début in the All Japan GP250 Championship in 1995, riding a

Suzuki RGV250 The Suzuki RGV250 was a Suzuki high performance sport bike which had a great number of its features and design cues based on Grand Prix technologies and ideas. It is a race-replica based on Suzuki's GP bikes from 1987 to 1998, the RGV V-2 race ...

. He finished in 24th in his first season, before improving to 10th the following season. In 1997, Akiyoshi moved into the All Japan Superbike Championship – later the All Japan JSB1000 Championship – where he has spent the majority of his career. He won the championship in 2010 and 2011, riding a

Honda CBR1000RR The Honda CBR1000RR, marketed in some countries as the "Fireblade" (capitalized as FireBlade until the 2000s), is a liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder superbike, introduced by Honda in 2004 as the 7th generation of the CBR series of motorcycles ...

Grand Prix appearances

Akiyoshi has also competed in a number of Grands Prix of the MotoGP series. These have included The

Japanese Grand Prix The Japanese Grand Prix ( ja, 日本グランプリ, Nihon-guranpuri) is a motor racing event in the calendar of the Formula One World Championship. Historically, Japan has been one of the last races of the season, and as such the Japanese Gran ...

at Motegi, where he finished 13th on his debut with the

Rizla Suzuki Suzuki MotoGP was the factory-backed team of Japanese motorcycle manufacturer Suzuki in the MotoGP World Championship, most recently using the name Team Suzuki Ecstar for sponsorship purposes. Suzuki withdrew from MotoGP competition at the conclu ...

team as a wildcard rider, as well as two races in 2007 at

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the c ...

and Japan. He came 17th at the Spanish race, and had a good run in Japan where he was running 7th behind

Casey Stoner Casey Joel Stoner (born 16 October 1985) is an Australian retired professional motorcycle racer, and a two-time MotoGP World Champion, in and . During his MotoGP career, Stoner raced for the factory teams of Ducati and Honda, winning a tit ...

, but retired four laps from the finish. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, he competed in the Japanese Grand Prix for a third year running, again for Rizla Suzuki. He retired on lap 1 after going down at the first corner. In the 2010 season, Akiyoshi stood in for the injured

Hiroshi Aoyama is a Japanese retired Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, and current team principal of Honda Team Asia. Aoyama is best known for winning the 2009 250cc World Championship title. He is the older brother of former 250cc and World Superbike rider ...

at the Interwetten Honda team. He competed in two races for the team, finishing 15th at the Dutch TT in

Assen Assen () is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1809. Assen is known for TT Circuit Assen, the ...

and 13th at the Catalan Grand Prix in

Catalunya Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

. He was then replaced by San Marinese rider

Alex de Angelis Alex de Angelis (born 26 February 1984) is a Sammarinese retired motorcycle road racer. Career 125cc World Championship Born in Rimini, de Angelis made his debut at world championship level in 1999 in the 125 cc class; his first full season was ...

. Akiyoshi replaced Aoyama once again at the

Gresini Racing Gresini Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in the MotoGP World Championship under the name Gresini Racing MotoGP as a Ducati satellite team, in the Moto2 World Championship as Team Gresini Moto2, and the MotoE World Cup as Felo Gresin ...

team for the

2011 Dutch TT The 2011 Dutch TT was the seventh round of the 2011 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 23–25 June 2011 at the TT Circuit Assen. MotoGP race report This race was most notable for Marco Simoncelli taking out Jor ...

, however not through injury, as Aoyama himself replaced the injured

Dani Pedrosa Daniel Pedrosa Ramal (born 29 September 1985) is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle racer who retired from regular competition after the season. He grew up in Castellar del Vallès, a village near Sabadell. He is a three-time World Champion be ...

Repsol Honda Repsol Honda is the official factory team of the Honda Racing Corporation in the MotoGP class of Grand Prix motorcycle racing (World Championship road racing), backed by principal sponsor Repsol. History 1990s In the team entered a three r ...

. Akiyoshi also competed at the

as a wildcard entry with

LCR Honda LCR Team is a motorcycle racing team currently competing in the MotoGP World Championship under the name LCR Honda Castrol with rider Álex Márquez and LCR Honda Idemitsu with rider Takaaki Nakagami, as well as the MotoE World Cup under the n ...

– along with

Shinichi Itoh born in Kakuda, Miyagi, Japan) is a retired professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He has raced extensively in Japanese and International championships. Ito has competed in the All Japan Road Race Championship, and won the Japanese 50 ...

, racing for HRC Honda – as a gesture of support for those affected by the March

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six mi ...

Career statistics

Races by year

( key)

Suzuka 8 Hours results

Asia Superbike 1000

Races by year

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

References

External links

Kousuke Akiyoshi official website

Official MotoGP homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akiyoshi, Kousuke Japanese motorcycle racers Repsol Honda MotoGP riders Living people 1975 births People from Kurume Suzuki MotoGP riders Gresini Racing MotoGP riders LCR Team MotoGP riders MotoGP World Championship riders