Hiroshi Aoyama Back in MotoGP for 2013

Forced to go to World Superbike for the 2012 season, Hiroshi Aoyama will return to the big show for the 2013 season, with the Avintia Blusens team. Trading his Honda CBR1000RR superbike for a Kawasaki-powered CRT entry, Aoyama will perhaps miss the days when he was on a Honda RC212V prototype, but certainly won’t miss the Pirelli-shod production machine, which he only managed to race to a 18th place championship points finish.

Entirely unimpressive in WSBK, Aoyama has something that many CRT riders do not: experience on the tricky Bridgestone tires. That fact alone should make Aoyama a potent weapon for the Avintia Blusens squad, which has struggled to develop its CRT entry — due partially to the talent on the machine. With the help of Aoyama’s MotoGP experience, and 250GP Championship title behind him, the BQR team might find some more traction and direction with its work — having Hector Barbera along for the ride as a teammate won’t hurt either.

“First of all I want to thank the Avintia Blusens team for giving me the opportunity to return to the MotoGP World Championship, where I have had my best results as a rider,” said Aoyama. “The team has worked hard this year to develop a new bike and have made great progress. I hope I can help continue the development of the bike and I am convinced that we can do good things together.”

“I’m excited to get back into action in this category and test the CRT,” he continued. “I also want to thank the Honda World Superbike team for giving me permission to ride at the Valencian GP, despite having a contract with them until end of season. I will give the maximum next season, because recent years have not been very good for me. I return with great enthusiasm and am eager to show my full potential.”