Round seven of the Superbike World Championship, scheduled to take place this weekend at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” in Italy, marks the midway point of the 2019 season.

Moriwaki Althea Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari will be joined once again by Yuki Takahashi, standing in for Leon Camier who continues to recover from a complicated injury to his left shoulder ligaments and aims to be back in shape for the British round.

The Japanese pair have raced at Misano in the past, Ryuichi in WorldSBK and Yuki in both 250 (2nd place in 2008) and the Moto2 class. The two riders had the chance to get re-acquainted with the track during the two-day test session held at Misano on 29-30 May.


Leon Camier 2

"I've made some good progress with the shoulder over the past month but ligaments are not a quick fix. My doctor is happy with the recovery so far, and the level of movement is better but I'm lacking a lot of strength especially in certain positions. I am working daily with my physio and trainer to get back to full strength as quickly as possible. This has been a frustrating year because I’ve had two injuries sustained after getting caught up in other riders' crashes, in Thailand where I broke the top of the tibia and in Imola breaking the ligaments in the AC joint in the shoulder. I just want to get back on the bike again and see if we can make some progress. I want to thank Honda and the team, I'm very grateful for their support and I will be back as soon as possible!”

Ryuichi Kiyonari 23

We completed a test in Misano before the Spanish round and despite the weather not being perfect, it was a good opportunity for me to re-adjust to the track having not ridden there for almost ten years. We also tried several different settings, work you normally have no time to carry on during a race weekend, and then in Jerez we put it all together as we continued to work on the bike’s tuning. As for the track layout, Misano is somewhat challenging, with a mix of fast and slow corners but I look forward to heading back there and trying to do my best for the team”.

Yuki Takahashi 72

“First of all, I’m sorry Leon cannot be back with his team at Misano and I hope he can return as soon as possible. I quite like Misano, though it’s not among my favorite tracks on the calendar. I had the chance to complete a few laps there in May and that will be useful in preparation for the weekend. And then the experience we gained in Jerez is very important of course, helping us to make work in the garage as efficient as possible. I’ll continue to try and provide the team with useful feedback on the bike while also striving for the best possible results on Saturday and Sunday”.