Be it the laid back atmosphere of Laguna Seca and the fact the MotoGP riders after Sunday’s race are going on their long awaited summer break or more likely they’ve been shown the articles written by some top English MotoGP journalists (the Italians and Spanish are more or less siding with the riders) criticizing their Motegi boycott, several of them have started to mellow, now stating they’ll will wait for the independent study commissioned by Dorna before making their final decision.
The riders may have taken a certain stand against going to Motegi, but they’re not against going to Japan in general and are still supporting the country in their own ways, like Alvaro Bautista.
For the Laguna Seca and Indianapolis GPs , Bautista will sport a one-off Troy Lee designed Shoei helmet to show his support for the people of Japan following the tragedy that hit the country earlier this year.
This beautiful paint-scheme has been created by Troy Lee Designs’ Japanese designer Maki Ushiroyama and features all the flags of the fourteen countries on the MotoGP calendar, with pride of place going to the Japanese ‘Nisshōki’ or ‘Hinomaru’ – as it is more commonly known – on the top of the helmet.
The colours of all nations is to represent the global support for Japan following the tragedy in March and an added message in Japanese translates as ‘Ganbare Nippon’, which literally means ‘Cheer up Japan, do your best and don’t give up!’The helmet will be later auctioned to raise funds in support of a Japanese charity, with details regarding the auction will be released after the Indianapolis race.
Maki Ushiroyama – Creative Director, Troy Lee Designs:“As a Japanese person, and because we have many Japanese staff at Troy Lee, it was a great honour to do this design for Álvaro to wear at Laguna in support of Japan.
I really wanted to help my homeland and this is a great way to do it.
I wanted to create something very cool that Álvaro would like and also very tasteful to support all the people that were affected by this tragedy.
I think we have succeeded in that because Álvaro loves the design and I’m really pleased his reaction has been so positive! The graphic shows that all the 14 countries visited by MotoGP are supporting Japan, and I guess I can call the big red circle on top the heart of Japan!“On one side is the American flag to represent the heart of Troy Lee Designs, the Laguna Seca Circuit and US Suzuki.
On the front is the Spanish flag for Álvaro’s heart and along the back the UK flag is there to represent the crew’s heart.
Along with the team, TLD looks forward to auctioning this absolutely one-off helmet and aiding a charity back in Japan to help the people that need it most.
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