The Moto3 world championship visited Japan for the first race of an Asia-Pacific leg of the 2025 campaign, with Gqeberha rider Ruche Moodley among the packed field of young hopefuls who took to the 4.8km-long Mobility Resort Motegi for the 17th round of the season.
It turned out to be a daunting task for the sole SA rider in the category.
“I had only ever seen the Motegi Circuit on TV, watching my racing heroes compete there since I was little and it looks extremely fast on a proper race bike.
“As this was my first visit to this track, I knew it was going to be a challenge but we made good progress from Friday’s practice sessions to qualifying.
“Even though I narrowly missed out on passing directly into Q2, my confidence grew with each passing lap.
“I knew I’d do well in the race if I kept pushing the limits,” the rookie, who went on to start Sunday’s main event in 19th place on the grid, said.
Moodley’s race starts have been identified as an area where he can improve, as during the season he has lost many positions in the early stages of the races.
“I had a good start from 19th place with a nice clear run down to turn one on the ideal racing line.
“That allowed me to brake late into turn one and I passed quite a few riders on the first lap,” Moodley, who was lying in 15th place when the large field completed the opening lap of the race, said.
His position yo-yoed in the mid-teens for a while as he battled with his rivals, however, at about one third race distance there was unexpected light rain with parts of the track experiencing a drizzle, while other parts remained completely dry.
The rain was not heavy enough to warrant changing from slicks to treaded tyres and this meant that riders were second guessing grip levels at all points of the circuit, with the varying grip levels unfortunately catching out the BOE Motorsports rookie as a tiny error dropped him from 17th to 22nd place.
As quickly as the rain came, it then disappeared, with Moodley maintaining his composure despite the earlier mistake.
“Some riders were prepared to take bigger risks than others during the wet laps and this really strung out the field, which made it difficult to catch the guys ahead.
“Without a slipstream it’s not easy to set quick lap times,” Moodley, who kept his kept his head down and crossed the finish line in 19th place, said.
“It was a tough weekend from the get-go, but we completed every lap of the race, which has been a goal from the very start of my rookie season.
“We learn with every lap and take those lessons into the closing part of the season.”
The Herald
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