Katsuyuki Nakasuga


Katsuyuki Nakasuga is a Japanese motorcycle racer. He races a factory Yamaha YZF-R1 in the JSB1000 class of the All Japan Road Race Championship. He has won the Suzuka 8 Hours four times and the JSB1000 championship title nine times.

Career

A former competitor in the MFJ All Japan Road Race GP250 Championship between 1999 and 2005, Nakasuga moved into the All Japan Superbike Championship, winning the title in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 for Yamaha. After losing the title to Honda's Takumi Takahashi in 2017, he added an eighth and ninth title to his resume in 2018 and 2019.
Nakasuga had his premier class Grand Prix start at the Valencia circuit at the final race of the 2011 season as a replacement for the injured Jorge Lorenzo, finishing a creditable sixth place. In 2012, he made a wild-card appearance for Yamaha at his home race at Motegi, finishing ninth, before making another appearance for the factory team at Valencia, this time in place of the injured Ben Spies. Taking advantage of a wet circuit and numerous retirements ahead of him, Nakasuga was able to finish a distant second behind race winner Dani Pedrosa, becoming the only Japanese rider to score a podium finish in any class during 2012.
He won the Suzuka 8 Hours in 2015 with Pol Espargaró and Bradley Smith, in 2016 with Espargaró and Alex Lowes and in 2017 and 2018 with Lowes and Michael van der Mark.
Alongside his racing duties, he currently is the lead test rider for Yamaha in MotoGP.

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Races by year

YearClassBike12345678910111213141516171819PosPts
2002250ccYamahaJPNRSASPAFRAITACATNEDGBRGERCZEPORBRAPAC
12
MALAUSVAL31st4
2003250ccYamahaJPN
Ret
RSASPAFRAITACATNEDGBRGERCZEPORBRAPACMALAUSVALNC0
2004250ccYamahaRSASPAFRAITACATNEDBRAGERGBRCZEPORJPN
20
QATMALAUSVALNC0
2011MotoGPYamahaQATSPAPORFRACATGBRNEDITAGERUSACZEINDRSMARAJPNAUSMAL
C
VAL
6
18th10
MotoGPYamahaQATSPAPORFRACATGBRNEDGERITAUSAINDCZERSMARAJPN
9
MALAUSVAL
2
18th27
MotoGPYamahaQATAMESPAFRAITACATNEDGERUSAINDCZEGBRRSMARAMALAUSJPN
11
VAL22nd5
2014MotoGPYamahaQATAMEARGSPAFRAITACATNEDGERINDCZEGBRRSMARAJPN
12
AUSMALVAL26th4
2015MotoGPYamahaQATAMEARGSPAFRAITACATNEDGERINDCZEGBRRSMARAJPN
8
AUSMALVAL23rd8
2016MotoGPYamahaQATARGAMESPAFRAITACATNEDGERAUTCZEGBRRSMARAJPN
11
AUSMALVAL23rd5
2017MotoGPYamahaQATARGAMESPAFRAITACATNEDGERCZEAUTGBRRSMARAJPN
12
AUSMALVAL26th4
2018MotoGPYamahaQATARGAMESPAFRAITACATNEDGERCZEAUTGBRRSMARATHAJPN
14
AUSMALVAL26th2

Suzuka 8 Hours results

YearTeamCo-ridersBike
2015 Yamaha Factory Racing Team Pol Espargaró
Bradley Smith
Yamaha YZF-R11st
2016 Yamaha Factory Racing Team Pol Espargaró
Alex Lowes
Yamaha YZF-R11st
2017 Yamaha Factory Racing Team Alex Lowes
Michael van der Mark
Yamaha YZF-R11st
2018 Yamaha Factory Racing Team Alex Lowes
Michael van der Mark
Yamaha YZF-R11st
2019 Yamaha Factory Racing Team Alex Lowes
Michael van der Mark
Yamaha YZF-R12nd