Teluru JiR Moto2 Review Argentina Moto2 Day 1

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Teluru team JiR Webike rider Tetsuta Nagashima enjoyed his first taste of the Circuito Termas de Rio Hondo today.

The 21-year-old did crash once during his sessions, but is enjoying the circuit layout despite lower grip levels. It is hoped the grip will improve with more rubber being laid down over the weekend. Former JiR rider Johann Zarco ended the day quickest.

Tetsuta Nagashima, 1m 47.632s

At the end of the session I fell as I was trying to go for my best lap. I know why I crashed – I lost the front. It was unfortunate as I had quite a good feel from the bike and the tyres – especially when sliding the rear – it was quite comfortable. This is because currently the grip level on the track is not very high so it’s pretty slippery out there and sliding the rear tyre is easy and I’m enjoying it. We know we can make improvements tomorrow so we will do this with the mechanics and sort any problems out with them to make things better for qualifying.”

Teluru JiR Moto2 Press Release

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Teluru Team JiR Preview Argentina Moto2

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The MotoGP World Championship is heading to Argentina after a 15 year break. The series heads to Circuito Termas de Rio Hondo next Sunday on April 27th.

 The racetrack, built in 2007, was totally redesigned by Jarno Zaffelli, from Dromo Racetrack Design three years ago and is now is ready to host FIM MotoGP World Championship.

The racetrack will be the fastest of the entire season, with an average lap speed reckoned to be more than 116mph (188 Kmph) in the MotoGP class.

 The Moto2 race will start at 12:20 pm (GMT -3) and riders will cover 23 laps (110,538 km) following that will be MotoGP at 14:00 pm.

Gianluca Montiron, Team JiR Principal

"It’s a new track for all the participants and I suspect this will result in a little step forward for our rider. During the last race he was able to make a little improvement compared to the first race and the gap from the winner was reduced to around 10 seconds, considering the overall race distance. So this time I hope Tetsuta will be faster in a single lap time and decrease the gap on the overall race distance time. We need to improve little by little and every time we go on track we are conscious that our potential must be developed step-by-step without compromising the chance in our hands. From the technical point of view we will test new parts to avoid the difficulty that our rider has in the break after the race.”

Tetsuta Nagashima, Teluru team JiR Webike rider

“Argentina will be the only GP which will be a new circuit for all the riders so that the condition will be equal to all of us. I believe that this will help me a lot and I will try harder to finish the race in top 15 and get points. I shall learn the track as quick as possible, riding as many laps as possible in all free practice sessions and will try to find the right setting based on the good chassis feeling I had in Austin.  After the Argentina GP, the races will be held in Europe consecutively so that it will be very important to find the good rhythm before going to Europe. There's still a lot to learn race by race, but I don't want to waste this opportunity and all I can do is just give my best!”

Teluru Team JiR Press Release

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Teluru Team JiR Review Austin Moto2 Race

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A top 20 finish in only his second race of 2014 was the reward of Tetsuta Nagashima’s hard work at today’s Moto2 race at The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

After an incident-packed first lap where a number of riders went down, the 21-year-old Japanese rider found himself solidly in the top 20 for most of the 19 laps. For the majority of the race the Teluru team JiR Web!ke Moto2 rider was in 17th position, just two places from the points. Towards the end of the race he dropped down to 21st thanks to some front-end chatter issues, but he managed to take 20th position at the chequered flag.

The race saw Maverick Vinales take his debut win, from championship leader Esteve Rabat. The Moto2 Championship now heads to Argentina for the race there in two weeks time.

Gianluca Montiron, Teluru team JiR Web!ke’s Principal.

“Tetsuta’s best lap time was almost the same as in practice, but he was not so consistent as he had some problem with the brakes. We gained some advantage as some riders crashed ahead, so we were in 17th place but even from there things could have gone wrong so it was so important that he managed to finish the race. What we also take heart from is the fact that he improved his time from the race winner by about 10 seconds so we are moving in the right direction. Now we head to Argentina where no-one knows the track so that will be interesting for our rider.”

Tetsuta Nagashima, Teluru team JiR Web!ke’s: best lap 2m 13.402s

“The race wasn’t easy for me. I didn’t have a good start but there was a big accident on the first corner and I could avoid it and pass the finish line after the next lap in quite a good position. From then my pace wasn’t too bad and I was comfortable, but after the middle of the race at a specific corner I had chattering from the front and the biggest issue I think came from the front brake, so I had to slow down my pace so overall I think I’m disappointed at what we could have achieved. Still, I have a lot to learn and I finished the race to give me much needed experience. I am happy we finished and now I will stay positive for the next race in Argentina.”

Teluru Team JiR Press Release

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JiR Moto2 Team Preview Austin Moto2

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Teluru team JiR Web!ke and their young Japanese rider are now heading to the USA for round two of the MotoGP World Championship at The Circuit of the Americas.

The 21-year-old Tetsuta Nagashima gained vital experience after finishing his first race of 2014 at Qatar, and he now faces this new challenge – the Austin, Texas-based Circuit of the Americas – which is 5.513km (3.426 miles) long with eleven left corners and nine right corners.

It is hoped that with the support of his team – and the very experienced former 500cc racer  Shinichi Itoh – that he can build upon the experiences from his first race and move further up the order. 

Gianluca Montiron - Team Principal

“During the Texas Grand Prix, our target will be to improve the performance of our rider in terms of his approach to the weekend. We will be spending as much time as possible on our rider when he is on track in a bid to give him total confidence for the weekend ahead. Before making changes to the machine, the rider needs to get a good feeling with the bike and get used to the circuit layout. From there, we can identify what are the most important points of his development we can focus our attention on. The team have enough data and experience and thanks also to the support of Shinichi Itoh, with whom I worked in the past in MotoGP, I’m confident our rider Tetsuta Nagashima will have a chance to improve his performance step by step.”

Tetsuta Nagashima - Rider

“After struggling to find the right setting and to adapt my riding style for my first GP in Qatar, I could finally find a more comfortable feeling in the race and this has given me good confidence going forward to the Austin GP. I would really like to improve what I’ve learned now as my next step up in confidence so I can get closer still to the more experienced riders. The Team JiR engineers have helped a lot and I truly believe I will be able to do better and better if I just keep pushing harder and harder.”

JiR Moto2 Team Press Release

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JiR Moto2 Team Race Review Losail Moto2

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JiR’s new rider – the young Japanese Tetsuta Nagashima has gained vital experience after finishing his first race of 2014. The 21-year-old enjoyed the 20-lap race, and took around seven-tenths of a second off his time from qualifying during the hectic race. 

Gianluca Montiron - Team Principal

“This is the first race of the year for us all so I think it’s positive that we finish the race – especially after the crash previously over the weekend. It is all about time on the bike and experience. To see Tetsuta take seven tenths off his qualifying time is a very good point today – so we can see that his race rhythm is not so bad so now we need to try and improve his outright performance over a lap. We also see that he is trying to adjust his riding style. We now look forward to the middle of the season as we know we need to score some points by then, but I think we are satisfied with this result.”

Tetsuta Nagashima - Rider

Best lap: 2m 03.333s

“I’m not very happy with the result to be honest as I could have done better. I know I should be happy to finish as we had a very good start but unfortunately I was pushed into the run-off area on one of the corners with another rider which made me lose a position or so. What was positive was me watching the other riders to see their lines and styles and also my ultimate lap time was much better. I really need to look at changing my riding style to suit the bike, tyres and machine but this first race was very positive. I’m now working towards the next race in Texas where I hope to make a further improvement.”

JiR Moto2 Press Release

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JiR Moto2 Team Review Losail Moto2 Day 3

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It’s been another day of experience and learning for Team JiR’s new rider – the young Japanese Tetsuta Nagashima.

The 21-year-old has shaved off around 1.4 seconds from his time on Thursday and will doubtless gain much more experience during the race.

The session was an exciting one, with Esteve Rabat taking pole position from Sandro Cortese. Cortese later crashed at the end of the session in a series of incidents that led to a red flag just as the session finished. There was a terrifying incident where Mika Kallio T-boned a stationary bike on track. Reports indicate that no-one has been injured in these crashes.

Tetsuta Nagashima - Rider
Best lap: 2m 04.036s
“I feel that compared to the last two days I’ve made some real improvements and found a good setting with the help of my experienced team and mechanics. During the very last few minutes of the qualifying session I was ready to put in 100% to try and make a good lap time but with five or six minutes to go I made some mistakes during those laps but still managed to record my best lap time of the weekend, so I know I’m going in the right direction. For me, all is positive at the moment but I want to try a few more things in the warm-up before I try my best in the race for both myself and the team. I’m looking forward to it!”

JiR Moto2 Press Release

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JiR Moto2 Team Review Losail Moto2 Day 2

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Japanese rider Tetsuta Nagashima has had a tough first day at the first round of the Moto2 World Championship – but he’s looking ahead to gaining more experience on track during tomorrow’s sessions.

The 21-year-old spent time acclimatizing himself to the twists and turns of the 3.34-miles (5.380km) Doha circuit today, but suffered a crash in the early part of the second session. Although he was not hurt, the damage to the Team JiR Moto2 machine meant he had to sit out the rest of that session.

Gianluca Montiron - Team Principal

“We must be positive after today despite what happened as Tetsuta’s lap times were coming down and he did his best lap time so far but then tried to follow a group of more experienced riders and he missed his braking point and crashed out. This will happen – he’s a young rider, but sadly this compromised his session as it wasn’t possible to recover the bike. He will learn and realize it is best to be more prudent at the start of a session. Now the mechanics – who have a lot of experience – will rebuild the bike and share data with our young rider to give him yet more information to help him improve. This is the key here – experience – young riders like Tetsuta need time to develop, so let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Tetsuta Nagashima - Rider

Best lap: 2m 05.388s

“I am so very disappointed to shorten my second session by crashing out on the fifth lap. Thankfully I wasn’t injured but due to the damage to my bike I couldn’t continue. This is such a big shame as I was really getting a positive feeling with the bike and was feeling that I could push that little bit harder. As it was, I was very disappointed to sit out most of that second session. I will learn from this. Still, I am positive for tomorrow and I will now check the data and look at settings tomorrow to improve my lap times.”

JiR Moto2 Press Release

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JiR Moto2 Team Preview Losail Moto2

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Team JiR and their Japanese rider Tetsuta Nagashima head to Doha and the first round of the Moto2 World Championship. 

The first race of the 18-round MotoGP series takes place at the Losail circuit, near Qatar’s capital city of Doha. Since being built in 2003, the circuit has become famous for hosting the first ever floodlit MotoGP race in 2008. At 3.34-miles in length (5.380km) it is one of the longest in MotoGP, with a challenging series of corners made all the more difficult with the desert sand making grip levels an issue.

This will mark the full baptism of fire for the 21-year-old, even though he raced with the official TSR team in the Japanese Grand Prix last season and has endured 3000km of testing. 

Gianluca Montiron – Team Principal

“We have another season to look forward to and we have some good expectations of our rider. He is young and we know he will have to learn a lot over the course of the season but we hope to see improvements and results that will come. I’m curious to see how he approaches this Qatar race. The Tarmac you find on Japanese circuits have a lot of grip and now we will truly see how he handles the differing grip levels offered by European race circuits and then he also has to adapt to the tyres too. We hope that by mid-season he will be scoring some points. We know that this judgment of results to come is more difficult compared to previous years as Tetsuta is young, but he is one of the best young Japanese riders and we cannot just give him a race-by-race chance, this needs to be part of a full, long-term programme and in this we have the support of our partners. We will – during the whole season – be involving all our valued partners in a series of commercial collaborations which will marry their businesses with the unique dynamic offered by the Moto2 World Championship. For example, we are very proud that our Moto2 machine will be displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show just after Qatar. Everything is new for 2014 and we look forward to the season hoping that everything combines together perfectly.” 

Tetsuta Nagashima – Rider 

“So now the waiting is over and I am excited to be looking forward to my first race. We have had a long period of testing and I’ve seen some ups and downs but my confidence is strong following our recent test at Jerez. Sometimes it’s been a struggle to adapt to all the new things I’ve had to get used to but now we go racing. I’ve had the full help of all my team and Luca Montiron so now we look at Qatar for the first race. I have been looking forward to Qatar as it’s another new track for us, but I have been visiting motogp.com and checking out the on-board lap videos in a bid to get used to the layout of the circuit. It looks exciting – especially racing in the dark. Let’s hope for a good first race.”

JiR Moto2 Press Release

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