The Japanese Ai Ogura (Kiyose, 23 years old) is the new Moto2 world champion and the first Japanese to win a title since 2009. But he is much more than that. This young talent, who will make the jump to MotoGP with the Aprilia satellite team in 2025represents the achievement of a project designed to feed Asian talent into the Motorcycle World Championship. A decade after the creation of Honda Team Asia, which established a kind of La Masia in an apartment near Barcelona’s Plaza España, the program celebrates its first title. In the Dorna offices, Carmelo Ezpeleta and company also rub their handsand the excitement of this Tokyo neighbor is confirmation of the commitment to create promotional championships in key markets, in this case the Asia Talent Cup launched in 2017.
“We are very proud of its growth and this great achievement,” celebrates Hiroshi Aoyama, sports director of the project and last Japanese champion, 15 years ago in 250cc, in conversation with EL PAÍS. “We started more than ten years ago and he is the first champion to leave the program, which is a very important milestone. It is a special title for Honda’s project with Idemitsu, which has also had the support of Dorna,” he explains. Ogura, until now eternal second, he has known how to persist in his efforts, grow race by race and, most importantly, leave the nest to fly alone at the right moment. With his second place in the Thai GP this Sunday, after recovering from seventh place, the Japanese finishes the course with three victories and eight podiums, the best harvest of his career.
The kid decided to leave the team that had spoiled him since he was 16 this year, changing the Kalex chassis for that of Boscoscuro and joining the MT Helmets-MSi structure. Along the way he refused to go up to the premier category with Honda on two occasions. He did not feel prepared and the bad timing of the golden wing machine did not help in his resignation either. Although he had offers again, he preferred to bet on a European brand. “I’m not enthusiastic about this decision, but I had to think about what was best for my future and consider the current balance of forces in MotoGP,” the protagonist summarized at the time. The Thai Somkiat Chantra, precisely one of Ogura’s great friends away from the circuits and also a product of the same program, will finally get on the mount that Takaaki Nakagami has occupied for seven years, the first student of the academy to compete with the best. .
“They have come all the way together, and in fact now they will live together,” says Toni Calvo, who was the press officer for the project and at the same time the older brother in that apartment full of teenagers. There, they had the responsibility to grow independently and learn to manage their lives as professional athletes, without neglecting the most mundane tasks. From taking care of the apartment to doing the laundry. If they did not comply, they had to pay a fine out of their own pocket. Although they do not speak fluent Spanish, the members of this peculiar Asian Masia defend themselves better than they appear and, above all, they know how to pay attention.
Reserved and not very expressive, like most Japanese within the paddockthose who know Ogura describe him as an affable and intelligent guy, as well as a real hard worker. “He is a guy with very clear ideas. He did not want to ride with Honda even though they insisted, he was clear that it would ruin his career, although it was difficult for him to decide, since he has always been very faithful to his people,” Calvo assesses. Off the beaten track, the boy has an exquisite taste for 70s and 80s rock, with the knowledge of a true music lover and Spotify lists that are a delight. Another activity that he loves, absolutely opposite to the world of racing and revealing of his character off the track, is fishing. That’s why he looked for a house next to a lake in Rubí, a town on the outskirts of Barcelona, when he left the shared apartment. His friend Chantra will move there with him, although his capture colleague is the very young talent of the academy, the also Japanese Taiyo Furusato, 19 years old.
Analytical and determined, one of the champion’s great advances on the court has been in terms of listening more to his surroundings and opening his mind to other ideas beyond his own. “Ogura has what I would define as tenacity. Even if he has a bad start and is behind, he never gives up and always makes up positions. Without a doubt, he is one of the most promising riders in the World Championship, and that is why we have decided to try to build something interesting with him,” says Davide Brivio, head of the Aprilia satellite team. “When we started working with him, he was far from the complete driver he is today. Every year it has grown, it has evolved, and it has done so step by step. Although he is not the fastest to start, he has a great capacity for progression and knows how to find a solution to any situation or problem. Consistency, for me, is one of his best attributes,” details Aoyama.
With this good poster, the second rider of the Ogura saga – his older sister, Karen, competed in MotoAmerica and made him interested in competition with his father – lands in MotoGP with the dream of emulating his idol Daijiro Kato, sadly He died at the height of his career in 2003. Since Makoto Tamada won the Japanese GP two decades ago, no driver from the country of the rising sun has won a race in the premier class. “Today I have no words, I’m sorry, I can only thank all the people who have helped me along this path,” he agreed, restrained as usual, from the parc ferme.
