Kazuki Watanabe to fight 3 out of 4 races! Shogo Kawasaki to ride as 4th Rider, Kyosuke Okuda to race at Le Mans

2024年2月28日 18:00

February 28 at 10:00 CEST

Team Étoile (Team Principal : Takashi Ichikawa) will be participating in The FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) from the 2024 season, to appoint Kazuki Watanabe as a new rider.
It is decided that he’ll join 3 out 4 races in Europe except for Suzuka Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race in the series.
While Hikari Okubo, who was announced as the rider of the team prior, would skip the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Suzuka 8 Hours round due to conflict in the Supersport Championship Races.

Kyosuke Okuda will be assigned to these replacements.
With that, Watanabe, Kamei, Okuda will fight the season opening race in the Le Mans 24 Hours and Kawasaki is registered as the 4th rider.
Kawasaki hasn’t fought in 1000cc races in his career, but has joined Italian Championship (CIV) / SS600 class.
This direction was conceptually made in the team which is “to give chances to young talent”.

Soon Team Principal Ichikawa and the team staff will visit France to prepare for the Le Mans 24 Hours with 3 days TRACK DAY session from 25th March and the official session planned on 2nd and 3rd April.

Rider - Hikari Okubo

"The riders, mechanics and staff are all here finally, I'm excited about the situation.
We have experienced riders here in the team, I'm already seeing the good result with our solid work in the upcoming race.
Unfortunately it's not possible to participate in Le Mans, but I have a lot of experience in Le Mans, so I hope it can contribute to the better bike building in the team.

Rider - Yudai Kamei

"BMW, DUNLOP tires and the track (Le Mans) are the unknown things in my career, it will be so challenging and actually sounds fun.
I already have a balanced feeling from the M1000RR on the first ride last December.
The 24 hour race is also my first attempt though I've never failed in the Suzuka 8 hour race before, I believe we can do it with a good result with a steady ride with our fast riders.
To make this possible, I'll increase my pace in the official test to keep a solid 80% pace in the race".

Rider - Kazuki Watanabe

“It's an honor to be asked for a new member of the new team.
To be honest, it was unclear that I would perform as a pro-racing rider, I’d appreciate the principal Ichikawa for this chance.
I feel the passion from the team concept “to be the winning team in EWC with 10 years planning”, I’m seeking chances to give feedback based on my experience to the team and hoping that the team would find the way to get to the top.
For now I purely enjoy ride for the Le Mans 24 Hours.”

Rider - Kyosuke Okuda

“I’m keen on catching up with both Watanabe and Kamei since they are top-rankers of the JSB1000 class.
It will be my first ride in the Le Mans, I’ll try to capture how-to from my teammates and my goal is to be as quick as them in the average laps.”

Rider - Shogo Kawasaki

“It’s very happy to join in the Le Man 24 Hours and Bol d’Or as 4th rider. My mission is to establish the understanding of 1000cc bikes from my teammates. Hope this chance will be the trigger of my career. I appreciate this offer and will try my best for the team.”

Team Principal - Takashi Ichikawa

“Since this team has been started from scratch, we had to start from zero of preparation of bikes and shipping goods to France.
In the middle of February, finally the team had done the preparation for the practice session and 5 riders gathered together.
With uncountable support from everyone and with the effort of the team staff, soon we will visit France with all things we need for the race.
At the end of March, it’s scheduled to proceed the bike setting up with recently joined riders Watanabe, Okuda, Kawasaki and Kamei to finish the Le Mans 24 Hours race.
Please keep supporting us for the upcoming races.”

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

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