Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Kousuke Akiyoshi raced to his first career win and the team’s first of the season in today’s final eighth-round All Japan Superbike Championship event at Motegi. The factory MotoGP development rider started the 18-lap race in second position behind team mate Atsushi Watanabe and moved to the front on lap three before pulling out a three second lead. On the eighth lap, Watanabe was passed by Shin-ichi Nakatomi (Yamaha) and Shin-ichi Ito (Honda), who then moved to second but could not close on the Suzuki rider. Said Akiyoshi: “In the last two races I got a pole position but I couldn’t keep my position in the race because of some problems. But today I made a good start and had no problems. I would like to thank Suzuki and Yoshimura for giving me the opportunity to enter the race.” Team manager Fujio Yoshimura added: “Akiyoshi did Great job! It is only his third race this season but he showed his true potential with a very good performance. We were a little disappointed for Atsushi Watanabe but overall we feel very happy to give Suzuki this big win.” SUPERBIKE RESULTS: 1 Kousuke Akiyoshi (Yoshimura Suzuki). 2 Shin-ichi Ito (Honda). 3 Tatsuya Yamaguchi (Honda). 4 Shin-ichi Nakatomi (Yamaha). 5 Akira Yanagawa (Kawasaki). 6 Atsushi Watanabe (Yoshimura Suzuki). 7 Osamu Deguchi (Honda). 8 Yoshiteru Konishi (Honda). 9 Chojun Kameya (Honda). 10 Shogo Moriwaki (Honda). Final Standings: 1 Ito 140 2 Yamaguchi 111, 3 Yanagawa 111, 4 Nakatomi 94, 5 Tsujimura 91, 6 Watanabe 71. Editorial Note: American Mark Junge DNF, dropping out on lap four. Junge rode a Vesrah Suzuki GSX-R1000.