Ryuichi Kiyonari

Kiyonari? how do you rate him?

IMO he's world class. Completely dominating BSB at the mo(apart from being second in the chase due to injury) and looks set to come back to MGP or WSB in the not too distant future.

For those of you who dont know who he is, he is a bright young(23) talent from Japan who is sort of Taddy Okada's protege for the future currently riding for the HRC HM Plant BSB squad riding the Fireblade(CBR1000RR).

At the moment he is wipping the floor with everyone in terms of race wins and is like a machine- ruthless and blindingly consistent. He rides quite aggressively but is also very accurate. Destined to be a champion in my view. Would be good if he could deliver a world title to Japan in the future because they deserve it with all the fun and world class talent they have brought to the world stage.

Has a Japanese ever won a world title?

A Japanese rider has never won a 500cc/MotoGP world title. Daijiro Kato was slated to be the first ever and I believed it could have happened. Kiyo is going to be very, very good. The only thing that I see becoming problematic is he is 23 right now, very similar to Hayden, Hopkins and Melandri. If he doesn't get to MotoGP soon and adapt the young stars of MotoGP may take off and leave him behind for a few years while he hones his skills on a MotoGP machine. He needs to be in a World Championship series next year, if it were up to me he would be riding in WSB for a year or two and then off to MotoGP.

Me too. I think HRC will move him up to the world stage next year even if he doesnt win the BSB title this year.

Have you seen any of the races hes won? Honestly, the guys like a friggin robot, lapping within tenths of a second. On BBC one of the comentators(Charlie Cox) says "the guys so far out in front you need a calendar to show it".

Japan does need a world class star.

I don't get to see the BSB races because no one in the states covers it. I agree with you that HRC should move Kiyo up to WSB and Japan does need a star. I find it a bit fitting that Kiyo was more or less the replacement rider for the Movistar team after Kato's passing and now we are saying he could be the next great Japanese star just as Daijiro was.

kiyo has raced in moto gp already hasnt him? not sure how many races, 2003 wasnt it?

Yeah he came on to fill in at Movistar Honda after the death of Daijiro Kato. I believe his first race for the team was at Jerez. He didn't fare very well that season, although at the time he was in way over his head. A 21 year old coming from racing the Japanese 600 Supersport series to MotoGP, that's what I was told anyways. He put up a good fight for how inexperienced he was.

I will have to keep an eye out for him. Unfortunately I haven't heard of him.

I agree and rate him apart from his big off early on in the season, the kid is fast and consistent.

Maybe a good time to get in when Motogp switches to 800cc, so more of a level playing field then.