Yuki Okamoto to Contest 2025 Supersport World Championship Season on YZF-R9

November 6, 2024 - Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce that Yuki Okamoto, whowon his first All Japan Road Race Championship JSB1000 title this season, will enter the FIMSupersport World Championship (WorldSSP) for the 2025 season, riding Yamaha’s new YZFR9supersport model. He will ride for the Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing WorldSSP SupportedTeam with teammate Stefano Manzi, who finished runner-up in the 2024 season.

Okamoto will make his debut on the YZF-R9, a model already announced by Yamaha MotorEurope N.V. (YMENV), a Yamaha Motor group company in Europe. The YZF-R9 is Yamaha’snext-generation supersport that follows in the footsteps of the YZF-R6. It was developed forWorldSSP competition through cooperation between Yamaha Motor and YMENV test teams.

One of Okamoto’s challenges is to continue his forward progress toward becoming a top-level Japanese rider capable of competing at the world level, while another is to demonstrate the YZF-R9’s potential to motorsport fans and Yamaha fans around the world by racing alongsideManzi and others.

In early November, Okamoto will travel to Europe to begin testing alongside Niccolò Canepa,YMENV's new Road Racing Sporting Manager, in preparation for the season opener at Phillip Island in Australia on February 21-23, 2025 (tentative).

Okamoto is 25 years old (born in 1999) and made his debut in the All Japan J-GP2 Championship in 2016 at the age of 16. An injury during that season kept him to a 26th place finish. However, after moving into ST600 the following season, he was able to take 3rd overall as a rookie. He then went on to win two further titles in the class in 2018 and 2020.

In 2021, he stepped up to the ST1000 class, where he finished the season in 5th, notably takinghis first win in the class at the final round.

In 2022, he made a further step up to the JSB1000 class to join the Yamaha Factory Racing Team, where he became a regular podium finisher in his rookie season before finishing 3rd overall. Then in 2023, he bested teammate Katsuyuki Nakasuga to take his first win at Round 3 on his way to completing the season as title runner-up.

In 2024, Okamoto and Nakasuga had a thrilling battle for the title, and thanks in part to three consecutive wins at the end of the season, Okamoto bridged the points gap to the leader to come from behind in the final race and win his first JSB1000 title.

Yuki Okamoto
“This year, I achieved one of my goals of winning a title in Japan’s top class of JSB1000. Now that I’ve done that, my next goal, which is to ride in a World Championship, will finally happen.Although I’ll be competing in WorldSSP, I don’t consider WorldSSP my final destination. It was like my teammate Nakasuga and Team Manager Wataru Yoshikawa in the Yamaha Factory Racing Team told me, ‘You’re just getting started Go for it!’ So, I’m looking forward to getting a feel for how tough it is to race at the world level and overcoming that.
“Also, next year I’ll be riding the YZF-R9. I can’t wait to compete against my rivals in a new country on the R9, a bike that will be making its racing debut with me on it! Finally, I want to thank Yamaha for giving me this opportunity, my family for everything, and my sponsors and fans as well. I’m going to give it my best, so I’d ask for everyone’s continued support as I make the next step in my racing journey.”

Tetsu Ono (General Manager, MS Department, Yamaha Motor)
“Right now, there are several ways for riders to reach the world stage. One of those is the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU FIM World Cup that we put in place taking into account our product lineup and rider development. It is held as part of the Superbike World Championship in cooperation with Yamaha group companies in Europe and Asia. Also, in Japan there is a scholarship system for the JP250 class that’s been held together with All Japan competition since 2023 to send season champions on to compete in the R3 World Cup.
“Okamoto making his step into WorldSSP is also part of our development activities, but along with that, we also hope he can be a role model for young riders in Japan and around the world as he grows and gets strong results. This is why we will continue to lend him our full support as he moves into the next stage of his racing career.
“The YZF-R9 is an important model for Yamaha, both in the racing scene and in the motorcycle market, so the data Okamoto gathers through racing will aid in producing Genuine Yamaha racing parts, and in our technical development and branding going forward.”