(Corrected Post)

American Kensei Matsudaira will line up as a wildcard entry in the Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup this weekend at Mobility Resort Motegi, Japan (September 26–28). The event runs in conjunction with the Japanese MotoGP, placing the rider on one of the biggest stages of the year.

Matsudaira, from California, has been confirmed as a wildcard entry for the Motegi round. For the 14-year-old, the race represents chance to measure himself against Asia’s top junior riders in front of a MotoGP-sized crowd.

Last week, Matsudaira was on the track in South Korea, bringing speed, skill, and determination to an international stage. The FIM MiniGP Northeast Asia Rounds 3-6 were held last weekend in South Korea at Belle Foret Moto Arena. Rounds 3-4 were held on Saturday in the rain, and rounds 5-6 were held on Sunday in dry conditions.

Kensei raced as a wildcard for these rounds in the GP160  category as this is the first year for Korea (Northeast Asia) in the FIM MiniGP championship and they do not yet have a GP190 category. It was his first race in Korea, where his mother was born.

There was another American rider racing in the Korean championship, Lambert Su,  who also raced in the MotoAmerica Mini Cup National Finals at Road America this year and finished 2nd in the FIM Mini Cup USA GP110 championship and 4th in the FIM Mini Cup GP160 championship. He won his first race this past weekend and is currently leading the championship  with 2 more rounds to go.

More, from Kensei Matsudaira’s wildcard ride in MotoAmerica Talent Cup at COTA: 

4-time MotoAmerica Mini Cup champion Kensei Matsudaira made his debut in the main MotoAmerica paddock this past weekend, competing as a wildcard in the Parts Unlimited MotoAmerica Talent Cup by Motul category with the Roadracing World Young Guns team on board a Krämer APX-350 MA race bike.

Kensei came into the weekend without having ever ridden the Krämer APX-350 MA, but immediately showed his pace in the first and only free practice session of the weekend sitting P2 from his first lap and ending the session in P4.

With the race bike being delivered to the team on Thursday of the race weekend, there was no shortage of work to do for the team comprised of MotoAmerica veteran crew chief Stoney Landers, father of Rocco Landers, and Kensei’s father Kuni Matsudaira. With help from Krämer Motorcycles USA, Öhlins USA, and Team Hammer, the team quickly set about preparing the bike to be as competitive as possible, and by Saturday afternoon Kensei had qualified 3rd on the grid for the 2 races.

Race 1 on Saturday unfortunately ended with a DNF after a mechanical problem with the bike forced Kensei into the pits on the first lap.

By Sunday morning the team had addressed the mechanical issues with the bike and Kensei finished the warm-up session in P2 with a lap time of 2:27.2, just 0.5 seconds off the new lap record set during that session.

In race 2, Kensei got a great launch from the front row of the grid and slotted himself into 2nd by the first corner. Mid-way through the first lap, Kensei made a pass for the lead and held onto the position until the middle of the second lap when he had a big moment, losing the front. Despite still struggling with the bike due to lack of track time during the weekend, Kensei still managed to clock the second fastest lap-time of the weekend with a 2:26.8, just 0.2-second off the new lap record set during the race. During the rest of the 7-lap race, Kensei and another rider made a large gap to the group behind and would swap positions until the final lap, where Kensei beat the other rider to the line by 0.2-second. However, due to a track limits penalty of 2 seconds, Kensei was demoted to 3rd place in the final classification.

Kensei Matsudaira:

“I finally made my MotoAmerica debut this past weekend! I’ve never ridden a Kramer before and we had a lot of work to do with the bike, but I felt pretty good from the first session and qualified 3rd for the races. I knew I had a shot for the win and at least a podium, so I was very disappointed when I had to retire on the first lap of race 1 with a mechanical. In race 2 I was able to take the lead on the first lap and finished the race in P2 but due to a track limits penalty I ended up P3. Honestly I wanted a little more but in the end I’m happy to leave the weekend with a podium finish in my first race weekend with MotoAmerica, I had a great time and it was awesome being in the paddock with so many friends I grew up racing with.”

“A huge thank you to Roadracing World and MotoAmerica for putting this wildcard opportunity together for me, and to Chris Ulrich for all the support and help in the paddock. I can’t thank Stoney Landers enough, without him the weekend would have gone completely differently. He was working on the bike until midnight every day and working with everyone to get a bike under me that I could fight with. Thank you to Joe and Felix with Krämer USA, Barry with Öhlins USA, everyone at Dunlop for all their help this weekend. It was great to have Robert from HJC Helmets and the whole Bison Track family for trackside support, and special thanks to Cameron Jones, Kevin Martin from Monkey Moto, and California Superbike School for their help as well.”

“I’m back on the road again for the rest of the year but I would love to come back and race with MotoAmerica again if the opportunity arises!”

Stoney Landers, Crew Chief:

“Hats off to all of the people that contributed to this last minute project of Kensei racing in the Talent Cup class at COTA, especially Wayne Rainey and Chuck Aksland! My job was to work with Kuni and get the bike ready for Kensei to race. We all saw the bike for the first time on Thursday. I couldn’t have done my part without help from Joe and Felix with Kramer, Michael and Barry with Ohlins, the entire Dunlop crew and of course John and Chris Ulrich and guys from their team who helped us out. Kensei was a dream to work with, so focused, calm, and able to communicate with great detail both what he was getting from the bike and in turn what he needed from the bike. I was so impressed with him. At times it felt as if I was working with a kid in his twenties, but Kensei is only 14. When the shifter broke in race 1 he was understandably annoyed, but stayed calm. All we could do is fix the shifter and anything else we could imagine would be an issue with the bike. We replaced several parts and were confident we had a solid bike for Sunday. Kensei repaid our work with a podium finish. I was pretty bummed the weekend was over as I knew that with one more session, we could have the setup even better and he could be fighting for the win. The best of luck to Kensei and his hard working Dad, Kuni, in their remaining 2025 races in Japan, Korea and Spain.”

Kensei now travels to Japan to race as a wildcard in the Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup alongside MotoGP at Motegi, Japan which will be held September 26-28.

Kensei Matsudaira is supported by: Evike.com, Iconic Motorbikes, HJC Helmets, Dave Designs, Bullit Electric Cycles, Bison Track, TJ Corse, Alpinestars, Almassera El Teular, Ohvale USA, Apex Motorsports Park, Project SLUSH, Moto Tecnica, California Superbike School, Slacker by Motool, Bickle Racing, MadLabs Minimoto, 73 Moto Parts, D.I.D Chain, Yoshimura R&D, American Racing, NLAB Studio & Wraps, Karen E. Ott Photography, VNM Sport, Vortex Racing, Renthal, Hans King, Live 100 Moto, KiwiMoto72