Interwetten Honda’s Daniel Epp has moved fast to find a replacement rider for the injured Hiroshi Aoyama for this Saturday’s round in Assen and has confirmed they will be fielding Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi for both the Dutch TT and Catalunya GP’s.
Aoyama has been ruled out for at least the next two races after fracturing his T12 vertebra in a massive highside during Sunday morning’s warm-up session at Silverstone.
Akiyoshi is a seasoned rider and is the official rider for the All Japan Superbike team and is also a former winner of the Suzuki 8 Hours.
He’s tested for injured Dani Pedrosa during last year’s IRTA test and has made four starts for Rizla Suzuki between 2006 and 2008, taking a thirteenth spot at Motegi in 2006.
“It really is a pity that Hiro had this nasty crash in Silverstone and that he injured himself so bad, so he will be out for the next couple of months.
Especially now his learning process was really good and he was consistently getting better,” said Daniel Epp.
“We hope he will have a quick recovery and that he will be back with us as strong as he was before as soon as possible.
For the meantime we are looking for a stable replacement.
At the moment we don’t have a rider apart from Assen and Barcelona and we are looking for a suitable solution.
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