# Akira Yanagawa

Akira Yanagawa (柳川 明, Yanagawa Akira, born 15 July 1971) is a Japanese former professional motorcycle road racer. He won three World Superbike Championship races and finished on the podium on 20 further occasions.

## Career

He started racing on mini-bikes before becoming Japan's 250cc champion in 1989. He moved to his homeland's Superbike championship in 1993. By 1997 Kawasaki considered him ready for the Superbike World Championship.
Initial testing displays and results suggested that they were not wrong. At the A1-Ring, Yanagawa became the first Japanese rider to win a Superbike World Championship race outside his homeland, also winning Sugo later in the year to come 4th overall. 1998 was dominated by two huge crashes. At Monza the bike hurtled through the gravel at the Ascari Chicane before catching fire due to a burst fuel line, with Yanagawa nowhere near it. At Laguna Seca he was running 2nd when Doug Chandler's wild card Kawasaki went out of control on the run into the Corkscrew corner and harpooned Yanagawa. It was a frightening moment, yet Yanagawa only missed one further round. He was classified 2nd in that race, as the restart was abandoned following another pile-up. On his return he took two 4th places, and followed this with two podium results at Sugo. This was good for 7th overall.
In 1999 and 2000 he came 5th overall, with a win at Sugo and five third places in 1999. He was 9th in 2001, crashing on lap 1 of his 100th WSBK race at Sugo but scoring two 3rds at Monza, as Kawasaki gradually lost interest in the Superbike World Championship, focusing instead on developing a MotoGP bike for 2002. Yanagawa raced in Japan's Superbike series while testing this, and briefly raced it before returning to a testing role. He continued in the All-Japan series, leading it in 2007 before losing out to Atsushi Watanabe, and also entered for a one-off MotoGP round at Motegi in 2007.

## Career statistics
### Superbike World Championship
#### Races by year

| Year | Make | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | Pos. | Pts |
| Year | Make | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | Pos. | Pts |
| 1994 | Suzuki | GBR | GBR | GER | GER | ITA | ITA | SPA | SPA | AUT | AUT | INA | INA | JPN 11 | JPN 18 | NED | NED | SMR | SMR | EUR | EUR | AUS | AUS | | | | | 47th | 5 |
| 1996 | Kawasaki | SMR | SMR | GBR | GBR | GER | GER | ITA | ITA | CZE | CZE | USA | USA | EUR | EUR | INA | INA | JPN Ret | JPN DNS | NED | NED | SPA | SPA | AUS | AUS | | | NC | 0 |
| 1997 | Kawasaki | AUS 4 | AUS Ret | SMR Ret | SMR 5 | GBR DNS | GBR DNS | GER 8 | GER 2 | ITA 8 | ITA Ret | USA 10 | USA 5 | EUR 5 | EUR 4 | AUT 2 | AUT 1 | NED 8 | NED 7 | SPA 4 | SPA 4 | JPN 1 | JPN Ret | INA 4 | INA 2 | | | 4th | 247 |
| 1998 | Kawasaki | AUS 5 | AUS 5 | GBR 5 | GBR 16 | ITA Ret | ITA 6 | SPA 13 | SPA 7 | GER 4 | GER 5 | SMR 5 | SMR 5 | RSA 6 | RSA 5 | USA 2 | USA DNS | EUR | EUR | AUT 4 | AUT 4 | NED 7 | NED 6 | JPN 4 | JPN 2 | | | 7th | 210 |
| 1999 | Kawasaki | RSA 6 | RSA 5 | AUS 5 | AUS 6 | GBR 5 | GBR 4 | SPA 2 | SPA 2 | ITA 7 | ITA 5 | GER Ret | GER 3 | SMR 3 | SMR 3 | USA 3 | USA 12 | EUR 6 | EUR 5 | AUT DNS | AUT DNS | NED 6 | NED 4 | GER 3 | GER 4 | JPN 3 | JPN 1 | 5th | 308 |
| 2000 | Kawasaki | RSA DNS | RSA DNS | AUS 9 | AUS 6 | JPN Ret | JPN 6 | GBR 7 | GBR 5 | ITA 3 | ITA 3 | GER 2 | GER Ret | SMR 5 | SMR 6 | SPA 10 | SPA 12 | USA 6 | USA 5 | EUR 9 | EUR 5 | NED 6 | NED 2 | GER 4 | GER 3 | GBR 6 | GBR 7 | 5th | 247 |
| 2001 | Kawasaki | SPA 8 | SPA 6 | RSA 5 | RSA Ret | AUS 4 | AUS C | JPN Ret | JPN 11 | ITA 3 | ITA 3 | GBR 14 | GBR 8 | GER 12 | GER 10 | SMR 5 | SMR Ret | USA Ret | USA 8 | EUR 10 | EUR 8 | GER 4 | GER 9 | NED 8 | NED 6 | ITA DNS | ITA DNS | 9th | 170 |
| 2002 | Kawasaki | SPA | SPA | AUS | AUS | RSA | RSA | JPN 6 | JPN 6 | ITA | ITA | GBR | GBR | GER | GER | SMR | SMR | USA | USA | GBR | GBR | GER | GER | NED | NED | ITA | ITA | 23rd | 20 |
| 2010 | Kawasaki | AUS | AUS | POR | POR | SPA | SPA | NED | NED | ITA | ITA | RSA | RSA | USA | USA | SMR | SMR | CZE | CZE | GBR 19 | GBR 19 | GER | GER | ITA | ITA | FRA | FRA | NC | 0 |

### Grand Prix motorcycle racing
#### By season

| Season | Class | Motorcycle | Team | Number | Race | Win | Podium | Pole | FLap | Pts | Plcd |
| 2002 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | 48 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 2003 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | 48 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 2007 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | Kawasaki Racing Team | 87 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| Total | | | | | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |

#### Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Class | Bike | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Pos. | Pts |
| 2002 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | JPN | RSA | SPA | FRA | ITA | CAT | NED | GBR | GER | CZE | POR | BRA | PAC Ret | MAL | AUS | VAL | | | NC | 0 |
| 2003 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | JPN 18 | RSA | SPA | FRA | ITA | CAT Ret | NED | GBR | GER | CZE | POR | BRA | PAC | MAL | AUS | VAL | | | NC | 0 |
| 2007 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | QAT | SPA | CHN | TUR | FRA | ITA | CAT | GBR | NED | GER | USA | CZE | RSM | POR | JPN 17 | AUS | MAL | VAL | NC | 0 |