The Honda Racing Corporation team has announced that Saitama native Takumi Takahashi has been handed a wild-card place on the MotoGP grid for the Grand Prix of Japan, which will be held on Oct. 11 at the Twin Ring Motegi in Ibaraki Prefecture.
It will be Takahashi's first race in MotoGP as the 22-year-old, who normally races superbikes for the MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO team in the All Japan Road Race Championship, only has starts in 250cc and 125cc classes at his four previous one-off Japanese Grand Prix appearances between 2005 and 2008.
Despite this lack of MotoGP race experience, Takahashi says he has taken part in a number of MotoGP tests, so he hopes he can perform well in front of his home crowd.