Kagayama wins Japanese Superbike finale.

World Superbike star Yukio Kagayama clinched a last gasp victory during a one-off appearance in the final round of the Japanese Superbike Championship, at Suzuka on Sunday.

The Alstare Suzuki rider formed his own team - "JK Suzuki with Bright Logic" - especially for the race, which marked his first home championship appearance since 2002.

"The World Superbike Championship season is over and I wanted to ride for Japanese fans in Japan," explained Yuki. "Thanks to the great effort of Mr. Tsujimoto and so many volunteer people, my team was organised. My bike is almost the same as normal but I wanted to show my best ride to the Japanese fans and also ride for fun."

Kagayama, who started from fifth position, shot into an early lead ahead of Suzuki MotoGP test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi and his Yoshimura Suzuki team-mate Atsushi Watanabe, but was passed by Akiyoshi on lap four.

With five laps remaining, Kagayama re-passed Akiyoshi at the final corner - only for Akiyoshi to fight straight back - but as the Suzuki duo played cat and mouse, Honda's Shinichi Itoh slipped by both of them to take the lead.

However, Kagayama then passed Akiyoshi and Itoh all together at the chicane with two laps to go, but Akiyoshi followed Kagayama through to second - then took the lead from the triple 2006 WSBK race winner, before a last turn pass saw Yuki win by just 0.1 seconds!

Meanwhile, with Watanabe retiring early in the race, the 2006 Japanese Superbike title went to Ducati/Bridgestone MotoGP test rider Itoh, who finished the race third.