Tetsuya Harada has secured a ride in the premier class of
MotoGP next season, which will allow him to pursue his battle with 2001 250cc World Champion Daijiro Katoh.
The two riders were closely matched all season in the 250cc class, but with both on the same NSR500 Hondas in 2002 the conflict will be close. Harada raced for the MS Aprilia Racing team this year, but his Aprilia RSV didn't prove to be as competitive as Katoh's Honda.
Harada was forced into the 250cc class after his ride on the 500cc Aprilia machine was cancelled when the team decided to concentrate their efforts on the 2002 four-stroke bike. He had ridden with Jermey Mc
Williams for the team in 2000 but only managed sixteenth in the final standings on the V-twin RSV.
Optimism is high for the coming season and Harada is hoping to do better in the new MotoGP class than he has done previously. He has signed for Chris Walker's old team, who are no longer backed by Shell, but a new Italian sponsor who is yet to be announced.
“The sponsors want their own announcement, so there's not much I can say,” team boss Jeff Hardwick explained to
MCN. “At the moment we are setting up a workshop in Italy and should begin testing in early January using this years bike initially until the 2002 machines become available.”
