Fieten Olie Racing GP heads to Motegi in good form for Japanese Grand Prix

This weekend the fourteenth Grand Prix of the season will be held at the Mobility Resort Motegi in Japan. After a very positive race weekend in India motivation is high among Zonta van den Goorbergh, Barry Baltus and the whole team to maintain this form in Japan.

The Mobility Resort Motegi has been on the MotoGP calendar for over 20 years and has been the circuit where the Japanese Grand Prix is held since 2004. The circuit has eight right turns and six left turns and is mainly characterised by some very hard braking points. It is therefore the toughest circuit on the calendar for braking.

Last year, the Japanese Grand Prix was held again for the first time since 2019, making it a new circuit for Zonta van den Goorbergh and Barry Baltus. Nevertheless, both riders performed well and were both in Q2. Van den Goorbergh had his best Grand Prix so far in India last weekend with a sixth place while Baltus also achieved a very solid result by finishing eighth. Therefore the team is highly motivated to continue in the same way this weekend in Japan.

Barry Baltus: “After a good race in India it is nice to be back in Japan. The Mobility Resort Motegi is a track that I like and last year I had a good result, although it was my first time there. Let’s wait and see what the weather is going to be like but we are prepared for whatever comes our way. I am looking forward to get back on track on Friday!”

Zonta van den Goorbergh: “After a good weekend in India we went straight on to Japan. We both had a good race there which was a great result for the team, of course it is also nice to have scored my first points. This weekend we will race again in Motegi and it remains to be seen how the weather conditions will be. We showed in India that we are fast in both dry and wet conditions so we are ready for anything. Either way we’re going to do our best again.”

Jarno Janssen – Fieten Olie Racing GP team manager: “We have been in Japan for a few days now and have had little time to celebrate the good results from India as we flew straight on to Tokyo. There we spent two days with our friends from NTS, it was the first opportunity for the whole team to visit the factory. We have had two great days and the photos and videos speak for themselves.

Now we are looking ahead again to the upcoming race weekend in Motegi where we go with a lot of confidence after the good weekend in India. In my opinion, it was the best weekend we have had so far with Barry and Zonta so motivation is high to continue on the same way. It is quite a different circuit to where we rode last weekend though but they have been there once already last year so I am curious to see how we can perform.”

The time difference with Japan is 7 hours. The race weekend at the Mobility Resort Motegi begins with two practice sessions on Friday and one practice session on Saturday morning, followed by qualifying on Saturday afternoon at 13:45 local time (06:45 Central European summer time). The 22-lap race will start Sunday afternoon at 13:15 local time (06:15 CEST).