Katsuyuki Nakasuga

A former average competitor in the MFJ All Japan Road Race GP250 Championship between 1999 and 2004 (25th in 1999, 11th in 2000, 20th in 2001, fifth in 2002, eighth in 2003, fifth in 2004), Nakasuga moved into the All Japan Superbike Championship with the SP Tadao Racing Team in 2005, still with average results initially (12th in 2005, ninth in 2006), before joining the YSP Yamaha factory team in 2007 and finishing fourth. He then revealed himself as one of the most successful Japanese riders of all time, winning an amazing 12 JSB1000 titles between 2008 and 2023 for Yamaha (2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) losing the title only to Honda's Kousuke Akiyoshi in 2010 and 2011 (Nakasuga fourth and fifth), to Honda's Takumi Takahashi in 2017 (Nakasuga 6th), and to fellow Yamaha rider Kohta Nozane in 2020 (Nakasuga injured finishing only seventh.

Nakasuga had his premier class Grand Prix start at the Valencia circuit at the final race of the 2011 season as a replacement for the injured Jorge Lorenzo, finishing a creditable sixth place. In 2012, he made a wild-card appearance for Yamaha at his home race at Motegi, finishing ninth, before making another appearance for the factory team at Valencia, this time in place of the injured Ben Spies. Taking advantage of a wet circuit and numerous retirements ahead of him, Nakasuga was able to finish a distant second behind race winner Dani Pedrosa, becoming the only Japanese rider to score a podium finish in any class during 2012.

Nakasuga won the Suzuka 8 Hours a record setting four times in a row, in 2015 with Pol Espargaró and Bradley Smith, in 2016 with Espargaró and Alex Lowes and in 2017 and 2018 with Lowes and Michael van der Mark.

On 27 March 2026, Nakasuga announced he would retire from the All Japan Road Race Championship after the 2026 season.^[2]