Shuhei Aoyama
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Date of birth: 12/5/1984 |
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Honours
First race: Pocketbike race at the age of three
First Grand Prix: 2002. 125cc Japanese GP, Suzuka
Sporting career
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Biography
It takes a special ability to stand out among a horde of other riders when Honda is deciding who should be awarded the Honda Racing Scholarship. Receiving the invitation to race for Honda is almost as much of an achievement as winning an intensely competitive domestic series.
Shuhei Aoyama likes difficult challenges and he faced a big one last season: travelling the globe engaging in the premier two-stroke class as team-mate to experienced campaigner Sebastian Porto in the Repsol Honda 250 Team, under the watchful eye of kingmaker Alberto Puig. He managed to step on the podium at the French Grand Prix and although the adaptation to the complete World Championship was not as fast as expected, he managed to become Rookie of the Year, finishing eighth overall in the championship.
But Shuhei is by no means a total Grand Prix novice. He rode in the Japanese GP (Suzuka, 6th), Dutch GP (Assen, 25th), British GP (Donington, 10th) and the Pacific GP (Motegi, 11th) in 2002 as a 17-year-old in the 125cc. After his World Championship experience Shuhei returned to Japan to secure fourth overall in the All Japan 125 series.
He’d already finished eighth in 2001 after cutting his teeth in the hardcore pocket-bike arena, which he began aged three, like many of the best of recent Japanese riders. It’s hardly a coincidence that the two previous winners of the Honda Racing Scholarship, his brother Hiroshi Aoyama and Yuki Takahashi were also pocket-bike titans.
Shuhei achieved his aim of becoming All Japan 125cc champion in 2003 at the third attempt and then set his sights on the 250cc class. As the competition got stiffer so he raised his game accordingly and he ended 2004 second overall in the series, as rookie of the year. He also finished eighth in the Japanese 250cc Grand Prix at Motegi.
In 2005 he continued his inexorable rise to the very top of the Japanese ladder with his extraordinary domination of the 2005 national championship. To win six out of seven races in the ultra-demanding environment of the All Japan Road Racing Series 250cc championship is a standout achievement – which is precisely what 21-year-old Shuhei Aoyama managed in his second season on a quarter-litre bike. He failed to finish the Japanese Grand Prix after crashing on lap three. He had, however, qualified on the front row as third fastest rider.
This new generation of Japanese riders emerging from the domestic series is consistently competitive. And, as many of those riders engage in occasional Grand Prix competition as early as possible while also contesting home events, the step-up to a World Championship level becomes less of an unknown and more of a career requirement. Although most tracks will be unfamiliar to those who make the grade in year one – the level of competition is a known factor.
The 2006 season was rather disappointing for Aoyama, who was not at all satisfied with his single podium finish in France. He did not have a good start of the championship, crashing in lap three of the first round in Jerez and scoring his first three points in Losail. A further crash in Turkey forced him to make up his mind and he began progressing first with an eighth place in China after strong practice sessions and a third place in France. However, his progression did not fulfil the expectations Shuhei had set himself for his first year in the class. He was ninth in Italy and had another non-scorer in Catalunya. Until the end of the championship, he had his best results in Australia, with a fifth place and was sixth in the Czech Republic, Malaysia, Japan and Valencia.
99 points and the eighth overall position were the final results of the season that served to spur on the Japanese rider for 2007. Shuhei Aoyama starts this new season ready to practice much harder, to gather the experience he needs to be consistently among the best of the class.
