Following the historic first ever visit to Indianapolis last time out the World Championship calls in on a more traditional venue this weekend. The tenth anniversary of MotoGP racing at Motegi began today with the A-Style Grand Prix of Japan in the first of three races in four weeks in the eastern hemisphere. Preliminary events on Thursday saw Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha), Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Toni Elias (Alice Team), John Hopkins (Kawasaki Racing) and Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) representing each of the five different manufacturers in the premier class in the traditional pre-event press conference. Rossi looked forward to a weekend on which he has every chance of confirming a sixth MotoGP World title, having last tasted championship glory in 2005. Fourth or better for Rossi would be enough to clinch him the title, the Italian remarking, ‘I have my first match point here. Having an 87 point advantage means I can ride with less pressure. I have had many podiums here but only one win so we will see how it turns out this time.’ The Motegi weekend should see the 2009 rider line-up picture become a lot clearer as Honda announce their factory and satellite plans for the coming season with a press conference planned by the Japanese manufacturing giant for Friday afternoon at the circuit which HRC calls home. In celebration of their home Grand Prix, meanwhile, HRC will host a minibikes race at the Motegi karting track on Thursday morning with the likes of Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Yuki Takahashi (JIR Team Scot) presenting the Honda NSF100 minimoto, which is used in various junior racing competitions.