Kugawa makes history with first Japanese victory in FIM R3 BLU CRU World Cup at Donington Park
Teppei Kugawa made history today by becoming the first Japanese rider to take victory in the FIM Yamaha R3 BLU CRU World Cup with a last-lap move to secure the Race 1 win at Donington Park.
It was yet another frenetic affair for the BLU CRU riders, with the lead changing multiple times each lap. Starting from second on the grid, Kakeru Okunuki (Japan) was ruled out contention with a crash on lap one.
A multi-bike incident in the early stages saw Krabacher (Austria), Schunselaar (Netherlands) and Turner (Japan) crash out and saw the leading group of eight break away from the chasing pack, while a further crash at the Melbourne Loop on the final lap ruled Arai Agaska (Indonesia), Aymon Bocanegra (Brazil) and Mario Salles (Brazil) out of the fight for the win, however all were able to rejoin.
The crashes behind meant Kugawa crossed the line to take his debut win in the series, and the first for a Japanese rider, by 0.135 seconds from championship leader and polesitter Alessandro di Persio (Italy) in second. Emanuele Pastore (Italy) crossed the line third to complete the podium.
Wildcard R3 SuperFinale entry Ivan Spada (Italy) crossed the line with an impressive fourth place on debut, while Dawid Nowak (Poland) recovered from a tough Superpole to finish fifth. Salvatore Germano (Italy) completed the top six.
Chris Clark (USA) was able to hold on to second in the championship crossing the line seventh with the returning Xarly Méndez De Oleo (Dominican Republic) finished eighth. Maksymilian Palmowski (Poland) was ninth with Angelo Mottola (Italy) completing the top ten despite having to carry out two long lap penalties for a jump start.
Di Persio now leads the championship by a healthy 15 points from Clark, with Kugawa sitting third overall, 19 points behind the leader.
Setting the fastest lap of the race, Arai Agaska will start from pole position for Race 2 ahead of Alessandro di Persio and Mario Salles. The second race of the weekend gets underway at 16:15 and can be watched on the Yamaha Racing YouTube channel here.
Teppei Kugawa said: “I am very happy with my first ever win! Thank you to everyone at Yamaha and in Japan, hopefully we can fight again for victory tomorrow!”
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