Honda Racing Corporation test rider Shinichi Ito pleased with Japanese GP showing – MotoGP news
Honda Racing Corporation test rider Shinichi Ito is pleased with his Japanese Grand Prix outing at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit on Sunday, October 2, 2011.
Ito rode under Honda Racing team as the sole rider in the home event for the team.
Ito said, “First of all, I'd like to say a very big thank you to Honda. They gave me this possibility to race a MotoGP machine again and through this I hope I brought courage to the victims of the East Japan disaster. My target for this race was to simply
take the chequered flag and I achieved this.”
The Japanese rider qualified for the last seat on the gird that was the 19th position. Ito firmly rode in the race and avoided any kind of error or crash.
However, Ito completed the race in 13th position as four riders from the grid crashed out during the race. The dramatic Japanese GP was hard on every rider but Ito aimed to complete the 23-lap event.
The HRC rider also said that he will use this race experience for testing the 1000cc 2012 prototype being developed for factory riders.
Ito further added, “Considering that today was no ordinary race, I'm very happy with the result! I had a physical problem after Friday's crash, so the first part of the race was difficult for me. I reminded myself the main reason for participating and I
knew I could not give up.”
The Japanese rider was not felling well after the crash during a practice session. Still Ito remained focused to achieve his goal and managed delivering some fast laps.
He also added that the event will be a big help for him while testing the new 2012 RC213V. The new 2012 RCV is a 1000cc MotoGP prototype.
Following the race conclusion, he also shared his future plans that he is not willing to take part in another motorcycle-racing event. If however he gets a chance to race, he would like to do an event for Japanese Car Championship in GT300 class, definitely
with a Honda machine, he said.
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