Ryuichi Kiyonari for Camel Honda in Valencia

Raceline Photography
By blue2bikes
November 2 2005

It was announced yesterday, at the Motorcycle Exhibition in Birmingham, that Ryuichi Kiyonari will be riding the Camel Honda at the last of the season’s races for the MotoGP World Championship.

With Chris Vermeulen now part of the MotoGP Suzuki squad, it was looking like ‘Shakey’ Shane Byrne was the back up rider to take the last race ride aboard the Camel Honda, at the final round of the MotoGP championships this coming Sunday at Valencia.

That is until it was announced, in front of a large crowd who had gathered to watch the Awards Ceremony at the NEC Motorcycle exhibition, that it was to be ‘The Kiyo Kid’.

Ryuichi will be replacing the still injured Troy Bayliss, who was replaced by Tohru Ukawa and then Shakey earlier, prior to Chris Vermeulen taking up the ride in the previous two rounds.

Ryuichi is not a newcomer to the series, as he rode previously when called upon to replace Daijiro Kato, following his tragic death at the opening race which took place at Suzuka in 2003.

‘The Kiyo Kid’, now a seasoned racer in the British Superbike series, will be able to show how much he has learned since joining the British series - one of the best domestic series in the world today, if not the best.

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