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Mar 13th, 2024

Nozane finishes 7th in 2024 season opener with new CBR1000RR-R bike

For the opening round of the 2024 MFJ All Japan Road Race Championship (JRR), held at Suzuka Circuit (Mie Prefecture) on March 9-10, the team debuted with the new CBR1000RR-R for the season.
The opening round was for the JSB1000 class only, with Kota Nozane, who joined Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing this year, competing in this race. Kazuma Watanabe in ST1000 class participated as a spot rider.
The qualifying session was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, and for the race Nozane started from 11th and Watanabe from 15th based the overall free practice standings.
Despite low temperatures, the race saw favorable weather. Nosane made a good start to push up to 6th position, then moving up a position to 5th. But on lap 4, another team crashed and the race was temporarily suspended. The race restarted with the number of laps remaining unchanged at 14. On restart, Nozane made a good start again and was 7th at the first corner, and moved up to 6th on the opening lap. Watanabe started the race in 16th position and moved up one position on the second lap.
Nozane was unable to improve his pace from the middle of the race and dropped two positions, but due to a crash in front of him, he finished the race in 7th place while Watanabe finished in 13th place.