After his MotoGP debut, some "lighter" racing: Ai Ogura shines in the final SS Killers round

All MotoGP riders on vacation? Not exactly—just ask Ai Ogura. The Japanese Moto2 world champion, making his premier-class debut this year with Trackhouse Aprilia, took center stage at the 4th and final round of the SS Killers Riding Sport Cup held at Okegawa Sports Land in the city of Saitama. Specifically, these are races mainly featuring middleweight and supermoto bikes. Needless to say, the most recent Japanese world champion in Grand Prix racing was a major protagonist in the races, fired up the crowd, and clearly tested himself with a bit more ease after an intense MotoGP season (photo credits: x.com/okazaki747).

A debut year in MotoGP with ups and downs, marked by a few injuries that inevitably affected his performance. Ai Ogura immediately impressed at the start of the season with several top-10 finishes, sometimes even closing in on the podium (with the exception of the disqualification at the Argentine GP), until the first physical setback, the result of a heavy crash during free practice at Silverstone. The Practice crash at Assen with his Aprilia in flames didn’t help; he finished the race with a zero, as he did at the following GP at the Sachsenring. From Brno he started scoring points again, kept improving step by step, until the big crash at Misano.

He felt the effects of that fall even at his home round in Japan (he gritted his teeth in the Sprint, then retired) and in Indonesia. He reset in Australia, immediately back in the points, then returned to the top 10 in Malaysia and Portugal. The ending was half inglorious: in Valencia he finished in the points in the Sprint, then recorded a zero due to a crash in the main race. So, a debut year that wasn’t easy, but Ogura’s talent is undisputed, and he’s expected to be even more of a protagonist in 2026.