Team Étoile to join EWC from 2024 season as 10-year-long plan

2023年12月15日 15:57

December 15, 2023

Tokyo, December 15th, 2023: Team Étoile (Team Principal : Takashi Ichikawa) will be participating in The FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) from the 2024 season. This project is on the premise of 10 years of planning aiming for long term growth of the team activities. In the upcoming 2024 season Team Étoile will be racing a BMW M1000RR for the SST class. The team is currently in talks about the rider lineup, but Hirari Okubo and Kamei Yudai have already made the decision to join.

Okubo has completed 9 race seasons in Europe, and has participated in MotoE for the past 3 seasons. His extensive experience with various racing bikes and events, including Le Mans 24h and Bol d’Or 24h, will undoubtedly be one of Team Étoile’s strong points. Kamei is the top leading rider in the JSB1000 class in Japan, having much experience of Suzuka 8h races in the past.

Team Étoile was launched in January 2023 as a whole new team independently from any existing teams. It’s based in Edogawa City, Tokyo and Teloche (Near LeMans). Ichikawa leads Team Étoile, Kentaro Sone and Taiki Sato as core members working with experienced and young mechanics targeting to develop members as well.

Team Étoile has contracted with alpha Racing known as the BMW MOTORRAD Official Partner for the entire season to ensure engineering support. The team will begin with full Japanese riders and members for the first phase, the team is planning to add global resources in the future.

Our concept is to work with full enthusiasm to achieve success in endurance races. Although we may encounter unforeseen challenges, Team Étoile remains confident that our hard work will ultimately pay off. Stay tuned for updates on our project.

Team principal - Takashi Ichikawa

“It is a great honor for me to announce that Team Étoile will be joining The FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) from 2024. We would like to thank everyone who has supported Team Étoile. The French word in our name “étoile” stands for “star”. I had a couple of years training as a French chef in Lyon and worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Since then, I’ve been looking for a chance to put “Star” on my project, and now the time has come. The team’s logo design is a mix of the Japanese and French national flags giving images of collaborating between two countries. We, Team Étoile is targeting to grow global young members and to increase mates who join EWC from Japan. Also, we would like to deliver excitement of 24 hours endurance races through our project to trigger people’s interest in motorsports.”

Rider - Hikari Okubo

“A whole new Japanese team in the EWC is amazing news to me and I am happy to be invited as a rider by Principal Ichikawa. My goal is to use my experience in endurance races, for instance Suzuka 8 hours, Le Mans 24h and Bol dO’r 24h. Also, 9 years of racing experiences in Europe will make good influence on the team. We firstly make team organization and bike steady, being ready for the season opening LeMans 24h race.”

Rider - Yudai Kamei

First of all I’d like to thank Ichikawa-san for inviting “Kamei” as a rider to the team.
I’m really happy to have been involved in 10 years planning racing activities which is very long term, and also getting excited about my new challenge of endurance races!
A new motorcycle and new tires would be challenging for me as well, but I’m sure I can contribute to the team with the experience I’ve gained. Once again I’d like to say thank you to Ichikawa-san and all of my sponsors. I will continue to push myself to the limit!

EWC 2024 calendar

Round 1: 24 Heures Motos (Le Mans, France): 18-21 April
Round 2: 8 Hours of Spa Motos (Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium): 6-8 June
Round 3: 45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race, Japan): 18-21 July
Round 4: Bol d’Or (Circuit Paul Ricard, France): 12-15 September

Gallery

PDF document of the plan

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