is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

professional motorcycle road racer. He began his motorcycle racing career competing in the Japanese national championships before racing internationally in

Grand Prix motorcycle racing Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

, the

Superbike World Championship Superbike World Championship (also known as WorldSBK, SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) is a silhouette-class road racing series based on heavily modified production motorcycles, also known as superbike racing. The championship was founded i ...

as well as in the

British Superbike Championship The British Superbike Championship (BSB), currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, is the leading road racing superbike championship in the United Kingdom, and was once widely acknowledged as the p ...

. Kagayama raced

Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...

motorcycles for the majority of his career.

Motorcycle racing career

Kagayama was born in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He began motorcycle racing in 1990, competing for many years in the

All Japan Road Race Championship The is the premiere motorcycle road racing championship in Japan. It is run by the Motorcycle Federation of Japan (MFJ) (日本モーターサイクルスポーツ協会) – the Japanese affiliate of the FIM. History The MFJ was formed in 1 ...

, finishing fourth in 2001. He also contested four 250 cc World Championship races in 1997 and 1998, finishing in the top 8 in all four races. In 2003 he raced in the British Superbike Championship for

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 ...

, alongside double British champion John Reynolds, and had won three races when he crashed heavily at

Cadwell Park Cadwell Park is a motor racing circuit in Lincolnshire, England, south of Louth, owned and operated by MotorSport Vision, a business associated with former racing driver Jonathan Palmer. Sited on former parkland across a steep-sided valley w ...

. 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). For he joined Superbike World Champion

Troy Corser Troy Gordon Corser (born 27 November 1971) is an Australian former professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the Superbike World Championship from 1992 to 2011 except for the 1997 season when he competed in Grand Prix motorcycle raci ...

in the Belgian-based Alstare

team in the

, and won races on the GSX-R1000, riding on largely unfamiliar circuits against some of the world's top riders. He finished 5th overall, and did enough to retain his ride for . In the first race, he collided with

Noriyuki Haga is a Japanese former professional Motorcycle sport, motorcycle racer. He won 43 world championship superbike races during a 25 year racing career, making him one of the most accomplished competitors never to have won a Superbike World Championsh ...

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 an impressive double win from the second row at

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, nearly doubling his points total in one weekend. He came 7th overall in the series. In 2006 he raced in the final round of the

at Suzuka as a wild card and won the race. In he remained at Suzuki, but missed four rounds through injury. He finished the season ranked 13th. Also in 2007, Kagayama teamed up with

Kousuke Akiyoshi is a Japanese motorcycle 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 Ra ...

to win the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race for Suzuki. For 2008 he switched his racing number to #34, as used by former 500 cc World Champion

Kevin Schwantz Kevin Schwantz (born June 19, 1964) is an American former professional motorcycle road racer. He was the world champion of the 1993 FIM Road Racing World Championship. Early life Schwantz, whose parents owned a motorcycle shop, learned to ride ...

. Again he had an injury-hit season, and was easily the lowest-placed of the three works Suzuki riders in the standings. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Kagayama returned to the British Superbike Championship riding for the Worx Suzuki team. His teammate was

Tommy Hill Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

. He finished 15th overall with one podium finish. In 2011 Kagayama launched his own team "Team Kagayama" for a full season in the JSB (Japanese Superbike) class of the All Japan Road Race Championship. He is the owner and sole rider for the team, and the team's bike is the Suzuki GSX-R1000. Kagayama could not record a win this season and ended up 4th in the championship. Kagayama and the team are in the 2012 championship as well and recorded a win in the 6th round at Sugo. It was the first win for Kagayama since his full-season comeback to Japan in 2011 as well as for Team Kagayama since its launch the same year.

Career Rankings

1995: 11th,

Superbike

Suzuki GSX-R750 The Suzuki GSX-R750 is a sports motorcycle made by Suzuki. It was introduced at the Cologne Motorcycle Show in October 1984 as a motorcycle of the GSX-R series. Air and oil cooled The air and oil-cooled models can be divided into the first-g ...

1996: 11th, All Japan Road Race Championship GP250

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 ...

1997: 3rd, All Japan Road Race Championship GP250 Suzuki RGV250 1998: 13th, All Japan Road Race Championship GP250 Suzuki RGV250 1999: 16th, All Japan Road Race Championship Superbike Suzuki GSX-R750 2000: 7th, All Japan Road Race Championship Superbike Suzuki GSX-R750 2001: 4th, All Japan Road Race Championship Superbike Suzuki GSX-R750 2002: Suzuki MotoGP Test Rider Suzuki GSV-R 2003: 7th,

: Rizla Suzuki Crescent

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 ...

2004: 3rd, British Superbike Championship: Rizla Suzuki Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 2005: 5th,

: Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra Suzuki GSX-R1000 2006: 7th, Superbike World Championship: Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra Suzuki GSX-R1000 2007: 13th, Superbike World Championship: Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra Suzuki GSX-R1000 2008: 11th, Superbike World Championship: Team Suzuki Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 2009: 12th, Superbike World Championship: Team Suzuki Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 2010: 15th, British Superbike Championship: Worx Crescent Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000 2011: 4th, All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000: Team Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R1000 2012: 8th, All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000: Team Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R1000 2013: 10th, All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000: Team Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R1000 2014: 5th, All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000: Team Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R1000 2015- 12th, All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000: Team Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R1000 2016- 8th, All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000: Team Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R1000 2017- 10th, All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000: Team Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R1000 2018- All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000: Team Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R1000

Suzuka 8 Hours

2000 - 22nd (Team Suzuki / Atushi Watanabe /

GSX-R750 The Suzuki GSX-R750 is a Types of motorcycles#Sport bike, sports motorcycle made by Suzuki. It was introduced at the Intermot, Cologne Motorcycle Show in October 1984 as a motorcycle of the Suzuki GSX-R Series, GSX-R series. Air and oil cooled ...

)
2001 - 3rd (Team Suzuki /

Akira Ryo Akira may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Akira'' (franchise), a Japanese cyberpunk franchise ** ''Akira'' (manga), a 1980s cyberpunk manga by Katsuhiro Otomo ** ''Akira'' (1988 film), an anime film adaptation of the manga ** ''Akira'' (vide ...

, Atsushi Watanabe / GSX-R750)
2002 - DNF (Team Suzuki / Akira Ryo / GSX-R750)
2003 - DNF ( Yoshimura Suzuki / Atsushi Watanabe / GSX-R1000)
2004 - 2nd (Yoshimura Suzuki / Atsushi Watanabe / GSX-R1000)
2005 - 10th (Yoshimura Suzuki / Atsushi Watanabe / GSX-R1000)
2007 - 1st (Yoshimura Suzuki /

/ GSX-R1000)
2008 - 4th (Yoshimura Suzuki / Kousuke Akiyoshi / GSX-R1000)
2010 - 6th (Yoshimura Suzuki / Daisaku Sakai,

Nobuatsu Aoki is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. Aoki began his Grand Prix career in 1990 and won his first and only Grand Prix at the 250cc Malaysian Grand Prix. His best season was in 1997, when he finished third in the 500cc world championship ...

/ GSX-R1000)
2011 - 2nd (Yoshimura Suzuki /

Josh Waters Joshua "Josh" Waters (born 24 January 1987) is an Australian motorcycle racer. He currently competes in the Australian Superbike Championship. He is a three-time Australian Superbike champion having won the 2009, 2012 for Team Suzuki Australia ...

, Nobuatsu Aoki / GSX-R1000)
2012 - 15th (S.E.R.T. / Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle / GSX-R1000)
2013 - 3rd (Team KAGAYAMA /

/ GSX-R1000)
2014 - 3rd (Team KAGAYAMA & Verity / Dominique Aegerter, Noriyuki Haga / GSX-R1000)
2015 - 3rd (Team KAGAYAMA /

Ryuichi Kiyonari (born September 23, 1982 in Saitama, Japan) is a professional motorcycle road racer. He previously rode a Honda CBR1000RR in the MFJ All-Japan Road Race JSB1000 Championship. He was the 2006, 2007 and 2010 British Superbike champion an ...

, Noriyuki Haga / GSX-R1000)
2016 - 6th (Team KAGAYAMA / Ryuichi Kiyonari, Naomichi Uramoto / GSX-R1000) *

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

- esult( eam/ eammate(s)/

ike Ike or IKE may refer to: People * Ike (given name), a list of people with the name or nickname * Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II and President of the United States Surname ...

References

External links

*
team-kagayama.com
Official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Kagayama, Yukio Sportspeople from Yokohama Japanese motorcycle racers Suzuki MotoGP riders British Superbike Championship riders Superbike World Championship riders 500cc World Championship riders 250cc World Championship riders 1974 births Living people MotoGP World Championship riders