Veteran racer Akira Yanagawa, 36, will race a Dunlop-shod factory Kawasaki ZX-10R in the AMA Superbike race Saturday, March 8 at Daytona International Speedway. Yanagawa has tested alongside the Monster Energy Kawasaki factory AMA Superbike in America during the past two off-seasons and competed in last year’s AMA Superbike race at Daytona, taking a fourth in the attrition-filled event. But the former World Superbike race winner was unsure if he would race at Daytona in 2008 until recently. “Always nobody knows,” Yanagawa laughed Tuesday in the paddock at Daytona International Speedway. “Last year I came here for testing, and they said maybe you will race. And I raced. This year, no one said anything, but I see in my contract ‘race Daytona’ and I am happy to do it.” In addition to testing work for Kawasaki (which he will resume immediately after Daytona at Motegi, in Japan), Yanagawa races for Team Green Kawasaki in the All-Japan Superbike Championship.