Kohta Nozane swaps World Superbike for Moto2 with VR46 Master Camp

Previously part of Yamaha’s Japanese MotoGP test team, Nozane was propelled into a surprise race debut for the Tech3 team at Motegi 2017 (pictured) following Jonas Folger’s sudden withdraw on health grounds.

Nozane caught the eye of factory Yamaha legend Valentino Rossi on his way to posting the 13th best time, a fraction behind The Doctor, during the wet Friday practice.

“[He’s] very good,” Rossi said. “I followed him and he was fast. He has some experience with the M1, but I think that he hasn’t ridden the M1 since March. He is very young and I think he can be a very good Japanese rider for MotoGP…”

Unfortunately for the Japanese, he then suffered a fracture in his right-hand during FP4 and - after impressing further by setting set the ninth fastest time in warm-up – fell again in the early laps of the wet race.

Still only 26, Nozane hasn’t raced in MotoGP since, but won the Japanese Superbike title in 2020, leading to a World Superbike seat with GRT Yamaha for 2021 and 2022.

Nozane’s wet weather skills took him to what remains his best WorldSBK result of seventh in last year’s Mandalika finale and he has failed to crack the top ten so far this season.

But Yamaha is keeping faith and will now move Nozane to the Moto2 class, where he made his world championship debut as a wild-card with FTR in 2012 followed by three rides on a MotoBI/TSR chassis in 2013 (best finish of 16th).

'Fresh start' in Moto2

Nozane said: “I was able to win the JSB1000 title in 2020, and since then I‘ve spent two years in WorldSBK. It‘s been a big challenge trying to get results, and I‘ve had a lot of difficult races so far, but I‘ve also learned a lot and gained a lot of experience.

“For 2023, I‘ll make a fresh start and compete in Moto2. I realize this will also be a big undertaking, but I‘ll do my best to produce some great races for my fans and for Yamaha.”

“We are excited to announce that we will welcome Kohta Nozane to our Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team for the 2023 season,” added Tetsu Ono, general manager of Yamaha’s motorsports strategy division

“He is one of the best riders in Asia who has Yamaha bLU cRU experience. We will start a new chapter with him with the goal of showing everyone motorsports excitement.

“We will also continue to promote talented riders from Asia. We hope everyone will follow our challenge in Moto2.”

2023 will be the second year of the VR46/Yamaha Master Camp team, which currently runs Manuel Gonzalez and Keminth Kubo.

“I'm pleased to welcome Japanese rider Kohta Nozane to the team for 2023,” said sports director Gelete Nieto. “With this signing, we will strengthen our team even more in our second year of participation in the Moto2 category.

“I want to thank Yamaha for all the effort and support they are putting into this project. I am sure that together we will achieve great results.”

VR46's own Moto2 team will start a new partnership with Fantic next season.