Motegi, venue for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, holds special meꦇmories for Shinya Nakano - for it was at the same circuit in 1999 that Nakano, in a superb rookie performance, won his first grand prix with victory in the 250c🐎c race.

Five years on and the now 26-year-old is well established in the premier-class - and entering the final five races of his♔ first season with the factory Kawasaki squad. But adding to the significance of this weekend's Motegi race is its status as a home grand prix, not only for Nakano, but also for Kawasaki and tyre partner Bridgestone.

"Motegi is always a special race for me because I'm competing in front of my local fans and, oꦛf course, it is the home race for Kawasaki," confirmed Shinya. "This is important, because I have just moved to Kawasaki this year and I can sense that Kawasaki supporters are very enthusiastic and are anticipating good results.

"Motegi is a stop-go circuit; hard braking followed by short straights, but I have a lot of experience at this track and some very happy memories from my first win in 1999," he continued. "So far acceleration has been our weak point, but💛 the factory has been concentrating on improving power delivery, so I know everyone is working very hard to find a good set-up for this race. Even though I have been busy 𒁃in the lead-up to the race, I am enjoying being at home."

Part of that busy lead-up has included joining team-mate Alex Hofmann and fe🌳llow Bridgestone riders Kenny Roberts, John Hopkins and Makoto Tamada at the Japanese tyre manufacturer's headquarters in Tokyo and then at their motorcycle tyre production facility in Nasu.

The Bridgestone headquarters, just a short walk away from Tokyo's central rail station, was the first stop and, after the fꦕormal introductions, talk quickly turned to this weekend's event.

While Nakano admitted he was looking forward to racing in front of his home crowd for the first time this season, Hofmann explained🌃 that, while he enjoyed racing at Motegi, this weekend would mark his first appearance at the track in the MotoGP class, with his only previous ex🐽perience of the Japanese circuit being on a 250cc machine.

After meeting Mr. Watanabe, the riders then embarked on a two hour drive to Kuroiso City, to visit B🍸ridgestone's Nasu plant.

Established in 1962, Bridgestone's Nasu plant employs close to 600 people and manufactures more t𝕴han 27,000 tyres per day. The Nasu plant is also the only production facility in Japan producing Bridgestone's range of road and competition motorcycle tyres.

On arrival at the plant, the riders were met b꧃y an enthusiastic workforce, who all competed for signed postcards and caps during a question and answer session held at the plant reception centre. After signing autographs and posing for photographs with the Bridgestone staff, the riders were then given a guided tour of the Nasu plant by the ♌plant General Manager.

"I'd like to thank Yamada-san and the rest of the Bridgestone sta🐻ff for making this visit possible," said Nakano. "The factory tour was interest😼ing, because we got the opportunity to see the motorcycle tyre making process from start to finish. Tyres are an important factor when you're racing in MotoGP, but I had no idea that the manufacturing process was so complex."

"It was also good to meet the people who actually produce the tyres. Sure they can see the positive results of their work when the races are shown on television, but it was nice to be able to thank them for their efforts in person," added the🍌 universally popular #56. "Hopefully we can go from here to Motegi and show our appreciation properly with a🗹 good result on Sunday."