Moriwaki Engineering

Mamoru Moriwaki is a Japanese motorcycle tuner, race team owner and founder of Moriwaki Engineering, a Japanese specialty engineering company that designs, manufactures and sells high performance parts for motorcycles and cars.[1]

His motorcycle industry career is closely intertwined with that of Pops Yoshimura, another respected motorcycle tuner.[2]

Moriwaki began his career as a motorcycle racer for Hideo "Pops" Yoshimura, a respected motorcycle mechanic and tuner involved in Japanese motorcycle racing.[2][3] Moriwaki received no formal training in engineering while working for Yoshimura. Instead, he became self-taught, learning about mechanical engineering from books borrowed from his local high school.[2] Moriwaki married Namiko Yoshimura, Pops’ eldest daughter, while he was working for the company.[2][3] While working for the Yoshimura racing team, Moriwaki also successfully competed in auto racing, driving a Yoshimura-prepared Honda S800 sports car to a class victory at the 6 Hours of Fuji endurance race on July 26, 1970, and the GTS1 Class at the 1971 Japan Grand Prix.[4]

In 1971, Yoshimura made the decision to move his company to the United States to take advantage of the burgeoning American motorcycle market.[5] Moriwaki did not agree with Yoshimura and refused to leave his home in Japan.[2] This created a rift between the two men; however, within a year Yoshimura had returned to Japan and sought Moriwaki for help after he had been cheated out of all his money in a business transaction in America.[2] Moriwaki loaned Yoshimura money to re-establish himself.[2] Yoshimura would go on to establish one of the premier manufacturers of motorcycle high performance parts in the United States and became closely associated with the Suzuki racing program.[5]

Moriwaki Kawasaki ridden by Wayne Gardner in the 1981 Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race

Moriwaki remained in Japan and in 1973 he founded Moriwaki Engineering in Suzuka City, Japan. He became known for modifying engines and constructing frames for the Kawasaki Z1.[2] His bikes were successfully raced in the Australian Superbike championships in the late 1970s by New Zealander Graeme Crosby.[6] Crosby and co-rider Tony Hatton finished in third place at the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in 1978.[7][8] Moriwaki's reputation continued to be enhanced when Crosby and Akitaka Tomie qualified a Moriwaki Kawasaki on pole position at the 1979 Suzuka 8 Hours, ahead of all the major factory racing teams.[9] At the 1980 Suzuka 8 Hours race, the Moriwaki team of Dave Aldana and David Emde qualified in a respectable second place ahead of the official Kawasaki factory-backed team of Eddie Lawson and Gregg Hansford.[10]

After Crosby went on to race in the world championships, Moriwaki hired Australian rider Wayne Gardner in 1981.[2] Also in 1981, Moriwaki developed the world’s first aluminum frame for large capacity motorcycles and entered them in competitions.[1] Gardner and John Pace qualified their Moriwaki Kawasaki on pole position at the 1981 Suzuka 8 Hours, once again beating all the major factory racing teams.[11][12] Gardner then rode the Moriwaki Kawasaki to an impressive fourth place finish at the 1981 Daytona Superbike race behind Yoshimura Suzuki riders Crosby, Wes Cooley and Honda's Freddie Spencer.[13] Moriwaki and Gardner proceeded to compete in the British championship, winning their first race in England.[6] Gardner entered the final race of the season with a chance to win the title but, an engine misfire relegated him to third place overall in the championship.[6] Gardner's impressive results on the Moriwaki Kawasaki eventually earned him a contract with the Honda factory racing team and an eventual world championship in 1987.[2][6]

1984 Moriwaki Honda Zero X-7

In the 1980s, Moriwaki became closely associated with Honda Racing Corporation, the racing division for the Honda parent company.[2] Moriwaki was the first outside firm allowed to use one of Honda's racing engines.[2] From 2003 to 2005, Moriwaki competed in the premier MotoGP class with a Honda RC211V engine in a Moriwaki designed frame.[3][14] The firm gained valuable knowledge from this experience and in 2010, a Moriwaki-framed machine run by Gresini Racing took the inaugural Moto2 title with rider Toni Elias.[2][15][16] On the MD600, Elias won 7 races with the bike and secured the championship with a fourth place at the Malaysian Grand Prix, held at Sepang.[17]

The Moto2 formula is based on a universal engine and engine-ancillary equipment specification, with identical controlled engines supplied to teams via the organisers, previously based on the Honda CBR600RR superseded by the Triumph Street Triple RS 765 from the 2019 season.[18] Fuel, oil brakes and tyres are also controlled. Teams are able to use any supplier of chassis, suspension and bodywork under strict regulations to enable no one team to dominate by technology or expenditure.[19]

In late 2018 at EICMA, it was announced that Moriwaki would join with Honda Racing Corporation to run the Honda Fireblade in World Superbikes during 2019 with riders Leon Camier and Ryuichi Kiyonari. Initially using Japanese Superbike race series specification as a base-setting, the team collaborates with Europe-based Althea Racing.[20][21][22] Previously Honda's alliance was with Ten Kate Racing,[23] but due to poor results Honda decided on full-factory backing with long-term partner in Japan motorsport Moriwaki Racing. [24][21] Previously Midori Moriwaki was Team Manager for KYB Moriwaki Motul Racing in Endurance events.[25]

Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	Team	Tyres	No.	Riders	1			2			3			4			5			6			7			8			9			10			11			12			13			Points	RC	Points	TC	Points	MC
						R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2
2022	Honda CBR1000RR-R	MIE Racing Honda Team	P	27	Maximilian Scheib	SPA	SPA	SPA	NED	NED	NED	POR	POR	POR	ITA	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	GBR	CZE	CZE	CZE	FRA	FRA	FRA	SPA	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	POR	ARG 20	ARG 21	ARG 21	INA	INA	INA	AUS	AUS	AUS				NC	0	13	13th	258	5th
				35	Hafizh Syahrin	SPA 21	SPA 22	SPA 20	NED 20	NED 22	NED 17	POR 19	POR 16	POR 19	ITA 17	ITA 13	ITA Ret	GBR 17	GBR 19	GBR 20	CZE Ret	CZE 15	CZE 12	FRA 20	FRA 17	FRA 19	SPA WD	SPA WD	SPA WD	POR Ret	POR 23	POR 19	ARG	ARG	ARG	INA 13	INA 15	INA 14	AUS 15	AUS 12	AUS 17				23rd	10
				36	Leandro Mercado	SPA 20	SPA 20	SPA 21	NED 19	NED 18	NED 15	POR Ret	POR 14	POR 18	ITA 19	ITA 19	ITA 18	GBR Ret	GBR 20	GBR 17	CZE 17	CZE 17	CZE 15	FRA 21	FRA 20	FRA Ret	SPA 18	SPA 19	SPA 27	POR 23	POR 21	POR 20	ARG Ret	ARG 17	ARG 19	INA Ret	INA 16	INA 17	AUS 17	AUS 14	AUS 15				29th	3
2023	Honda CBR1000RR-R	Petronas MIE Racing Honda Team	P	35	Hafizh Syahrin	AUS 15	AUS 19	AUS 17	INA 16	INA 17	INA 15	NED 19	NED 18	NED 14	SPA 14	SPA 16	SPA Ret	EMI Ret	EMI 15	EMI 15	GBR	GBR	GBR	ITA	ITA	ITA	CZE	CZE	CZE	FRA	FRA	FRA	SPA	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	POR	ARG	ARG	ARG				7*	19th*	7*	12th*	106*	4th*
				51	Eric Granado	AUS 16	AUS 18	AUS 19	INA DNS	INA 19	INA DNS	NED 21	NED 21	NED 17	SPA Ret	SPA DNS	SPA DNS	EMI	EMI	EMI	GBR	GBR	GBR	ITA	ITA	ITA	CZE	CZE	CZE	FRA	FRA	FRA	SPA	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	POR	ARG	ARG	ARG				0*	NC*
				88	Ryo Mizuno	AUS	AUS	AUS	INA	INA	INA	NED	NED	NED	SPA	SPA	SPA	EMI 21	EMI 19	EMI Ret	GBR	GBR	GBR	ITA	ITA	ITA	CZE	CZE	CZE	FRA	FRA	FRA	SPA	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	POR	ARG	ARG	ARG				0*	NC*

^* Season still in progress.

• Moriwaki Engineering