They say you’re good only as your last race or in this case a championship, but seeing three time British Superbike Champion Ryuichi Kiyonari, end up racing in the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship and in the 600cc class to boot, kind of breaks our hearts.
The Japanese rider won his third BSB title in 201o straight off, after spending two years in World Superbikes with Hannspree Ten Kate Honda and in 2011 continued riding for HM Plant Honda taking two wins and finishing 6th overall, but despite the previous title it wasn’t enough to keep his ride.
He will now be racing a Honda CBR600RR under the Boon Siew Racing team banner that is based in Malaysia.
Even if we know that Asia is a enormous market for motorcycle manufacturers, but we kind of hope he won’t be joined by another Japanese samurai of slide, Noriyuki Haga, who has yet to announce his plans for the 2012 season.