Ryuichi Kiyonari’s mojo returned at Knockhill. The three-time British Superbike Champion and multiple Suzuka Eight-Hours winner stood on the podium twice in Scotland and says he now feels happier with himself and the bike Samsung Honda put under him than he has been all season.
“To take this double podium is very pleasing but I want better results next time out. For sure I am very happy and now I hope for more better results and will be trying to do my best to go faster in the next race as I want wins,” said Kiyonari, speaking to Bikesport News.
“I try now to improve my performances in every round to build on these results. It will be difficult but I will work hard. The difference now is some me, some my bike. I push hard as I have better understanding of the bike.”
So where has Kiyonari's return to form come from? At Oulton Park, Samsung Honda team boss Havier Beltran confided to bikesportnews.com there was an over-riding sense of doom in the garage.
Kiyonari left the series with his head down in 2011 and went to the Asia Championship, racing Supersport machinery which he won quite easily. Back in Britain this year, he had a couple of flourishes but his returning season seemed to be going the same way as it did two years before, with key team members completely at a loss for what to do.
"I had some people who had been with us a long time offering their resignations but I said to them that wasn't the answer. We needed to find out what it was that we had to do and it must have been at a fundamental level," said Beltran, speaking to bikesportnews.com at Knockill.
The Monday night after Oulton, Beltran sat down with his rider to talk about what they needed to do and there was something of an epiphany. It turned out that what Kiyo wanted from the bike, and what had been understood by the team, were two different things.
"Kiyo wanted certain changes but his thoughts and feelings had been lost in translation. What he had explained had been mis-interpreted and we had gone in wrong direction with the bike. After that conversation, we knew the reasons why we had been struggling.
"At the Cadwell Park and Darley Moor tests before Knockhill, we started to work on getting him back to where he needed to be, with the engine character changed, work needed to be done on the mapping and fuelling to help Kiyo ride the way he can.
"At Thruxton, for instance, he was 50p-ing some corners and the bike was trying to throw him off. It scared him. Now, we know what he needs and we are getting back to the way we were when he was winning everything in front of him.
"Between Kiyo and the team, we have made a lot of changes and so far it is working. I think now we will see Kiyo slowly coming back to where he, and we, need him to be."
Read more on Kiyo's return to form in the new Bikesport News, out tomorrow