Detail

Jay Wilson Wins All Japan IA2 Title with 11 Win Streak

October 10, 2022

October 10, 2022—At Round 5 of the All Japan Motocross Championship held on Sunday, October 9, 2022 at HSR Kyushu in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, the Yamaha Factory Racing Team’s Jay Wilson won both heats to take his 11th consecutive victory, continuing an unbeaten 11-win streak for the season in the IA2 class aboard the YZ250F, and in doing so won the 2022 All Japan IA2 championship title. This is Yamaha’s first title in the class in five years, since Yusuke Watanabe became champion in 2017.

Wilson joined the Yamaha Factory Racing Team for 2022 to contest the IA2 class on a YZ250F. He won all three of the season opener’s heats to take the overall win, then at Round 2 went on to suffer multiple crashes before rallying back to take the win, eventually extending his winning streak to nine heat wins from four rounds. That resulted in a 123-point gap to second place in the championship, Yamaha rider Ryota Asai. This also meant that coming into Round 5, Wilson could clinch the title by winning both heats, no matter how many points his rivals scored.

Heat 1 began with a slow start for the Australian, but by lap 2 he had taken the lead and was running uncontested at the front. Coming across the line with a 19-second gap to 2nd place, he won his 10th consecutive heat of the season and set up an opportunity to clinch the title in the following heat. In Heat 2 he got a fast start and once again held the race lead, running alone at the front for the first half of the race. He went on to take the checkers and add another heat victory to make it 11 back-to-back, securing the 2022 All Japan IA2 title with two rounds and five heats still remaining in the season.

Jay Wilson has played a wide range of roles within Yamaha, after already winning six titles in Australia and New Zealand in addition to serving as a riding coach in Yamaha’s bLU cRU youth development program. Taking this All Japan win adds to his sparkling achievements so far. For the rest of the season, his aim will be to win out the remaining races, but also to support his teammates in their quest to win the IA1 title, to develop young Yamaha riders and to assist with developing Yamaha’s Electric Power Steering (EPS) system.

Jay Wilson
“We won the title with two rounds left, and we did it by winning every heat so far, 11 in all. It’s all thanks to my wife and daughter who came with me to Japan, to the Yamaha Factory Racing Team who gave me amazing support and brought me over here even when things were really tricky due to COVID, and to all of the Electric Power Steering (EPS) development team. This title belongs to everybody. But even though we won the title, we still have races left to go in the season. Next is the Kanto round, where we had a hard time last time out. My goal is the same though, to take wins and keep our winning streak going. I’m involved in a lot of things with Yamaha right now, and one of those is developing younger riders. In IA2, Asai, Nakajima and Toriyabe are doing a great job, but I’d like to increase the number of strong Yamaha riders in the class, and also work on raising everybody’s levels. I think this can also be a boost for the All Japan Motocross Championship overall. As a team we’ll keep making progress on our goals this season, so be sure to cheer for us in the last couple rounds.”

Tomoyoshi Masuda – Team Manager
“Keeping a winning streak going is no easy feat for any rider, but Jay has been able to put together 11 straight wins and take the title, which is a fantastic achievement. I think it was all because of how strong he is as a person, with a professional approach to daily life and a sense of gratitude toward the team, staff and fans. I’m extremely proud to be involved in this project as part of the team. We’ve completed one of our missions, which was to win the title, but our others of technical development and rider training are still ongoing. Jay is working hard on all of these, and we’ll continue to support him and work together as we finish out the season. Especially with young rider training, my hope is that we can produce a rider who will come along and surpass Jay one day. Lastly, I want to thank all of our fans, sponsors, and everyone involved for their support of our racing. Thank you all so much.”