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Hiroshi Aoyama
Hiroshi Aoyama at 2009 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix
Nationality		Japanese
Current team		Team Scot Honda
Bike number		4
Website		hiro-aoyama.com
Career Statistics 250cc World Championship Active years Manufacturers Championships 0 2009 Championship position 1st (159 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. Laps Points 98 8 26 6 9 1068

Hiroshi Aoyama on KTM 2007

Hiroshi Aoyama (青山 博一, Aoyama Hiroshi ^?, born October 25, 1981 in Ichihara, Chiba) is a Japanese Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He is the older brother of former 250cc and World Superbike rider, Shuhei Aoyama.

In his six seasons in the 250cc World Championship, he raced Honda and KTM machinery in an Aprilia-dominated class. He took eight victories and never finished lower than seventh overall. He won the 2009 250cc World Championship, becoming the last ever winner of this class before its replacement by the Moto2 class in 2010.

Career

Early years

He first raced in MiniMoto at the age of 4, racing against Yuki Takahashi, who he has raced against for most of his career. In 2008 he referred to Takahashi as a "respected rival".

He rode in the All-Japan Road Racing Championship until 2003, when he won the 250cc championship with Honda. He also rode a couple of events as wildcard rider in the Grand Prix World Championships, finishing 2nd in the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

World championship

In 2004 he joined the 250cc World Championship full-time, still racing for Honda. His debut season gave him two third places and 6th place in the championship. In the following year he scored his maiden victory in his home race at Motegi and finished the championship in 4th place.

However, he wasn't able to stay on at Honda, so he moved to KTM for 2006 season. He brought them victories in Istanbul and Motegi, the first two for the manufacturer in the class. For the second year in row, he was 4th in overall standings.

Aoyama ended the 2007 season in sixth place in the 250 championship with victories in Germany and Malaysia. He remained with KTM for the 2008 season and finished the season in seventh place with two second-place finishes.

After KTM's withdrawal from 250cc class, Aoyama returned to Honda with Team Scot replacing his rival Yuki Takahashi who briefly moved up to MotoGP class. The season went well as he scored 4 wins, 3 second places and finished every other race in the points. At last race of the season Aoyama became the world champion.

Aoyama will step up to MotoGP in 2010 onboard the Emmi Caffé Latte Team Honda RC212V. In initial testing the team (which is itself new to MotoGP) opted not to use the electronic rider aids, despite the bikes being designed around them. The team's technical director Tom Jojic explained that he wanted Aoyama to experience the bike's true nature, and believes that he is good enough to be competitive on it^[1]

Career statistics

By season

• * Season in progress.

By class

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

1. ^ Aoyama 'electronics-off' strategy explained

External links

• hiro-aoyama.com Official website

Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team MotoGP: Hiroshi Aoyama (TBA) Moto2 (Emmi - Caffé Latte): Thomas Lüthi (TBA) 125cc (Emmi - Caffé Latte): TBA Grand Prix motorcycle : Honda RC212V (MotoGP) TBA (Moto2) TBA (125cc)