Dernier tour de piste au Portugal pour Fuji

Le vétéran japonais (41 printemps) vient d’annoncer qu’il mettait un terme à sa carrière au soir du prochain du GP du Portugal ce week end. Voici le communiqué officiel confirmant la fin de sa participation en TrialGP  après 25 saisons au plus haut niveau.

TrialGP 2021   Round WORLD 6

Takahisa Fujinami to bid farewell to the Trial World Championship this weekend in Portugal

‘Fujigas’, Repsol Honda Team’s charismatic Japanese rider, will put an end to a very lengthy sporting career with a final participation in the TrialGP World Championship to be held in Gouveia this Saturday.

After 26 seasons in the Trial World Championship, a record number of participations, 168 podiums, 34 victories, 7 runner-up finishes and one world championship title, Repsol Honda Team rider Takahisa Fujinami (Mie, Japan, 13/01/1980) will bring his career to a close this coming Saturday in Portugal.

Since his debut in Navacerrada, Spain in 1996 at the age of 16, he has spent over a quarter of a century fully dedicated to trial competition, collecting several key achievements along the way including the world championship title sealed in 2004. In addition, the Japanese rider has also broken several records in the specialty, such as the youngest rider to win a world championship event (Talheim, 1997) at the age of 17, as well as the record for the most elderly rider, attained earlier in 2021 with a win in Italy aged 41. Indeed, this kind of longevity has led him to become the rider with the highest number of participations in elite competition, with a tally of 355, including this Saturday’s event in Gouveia.

With 34 victories – always with Montesa-Honda – Takahisa Fujinami is the rider with the fifth highest number of triumphs in world championship trials and is fourth in terms of number of podiums, surpassed only by Adam Raga, Toni Bou and Dougie Lampkin. Furthermore, he has finished in the world championship top five over 20 consecutive seasons. Fujigas’ has also been world championship runner-up on seven occasions. The number rises further with the indoor competition tally: one runner-up, one victory and 36 podiums out of 139 trials. In Japan, he also won five national titles between 1995 and 2001. Finally, he took part in 15 Trial du Nations events representing the Japanese team, contributing to five runner-up finishes.

Thank you for so much, legend ! ».

Provisoire TrialGP 2021

Crédit photos FIM