The stars of MotoGP, motorcycle racing’s equivalent to Formula One, tend to start young – most top riders don a helmet and straddle a little motorbike almost as soon as they can walk. Often, they are inspired by a racing dad or older brother, but eye-catching Japanese rookie star Ai Ogura had an unusual inspiration: his big sister, Karen.
“Well, my sister started earlier than me. She started with a pocket bike when she was three,” Ogura tells CNN Sports. “So in between us, there’s two years’ difference.
“When I was small, I was not interested in MotoGP or other races, I mean, to watch on the TV, so I didn’t have idols like everybody, like Valentino (Rossi) as my idol, or (Casey) Stoner, or (Jorge) Lorenzo, or something like that. So, my sister was the one that I was looking up to.”
Little brother versus big sister
Ogura grew up in Kiyose, a suburb in Tokyo’s commuter belt. His father raced bikes at an amateur level, so he and his family devoted much of their free time to racing.
“Every weekend, me and my sister, and my father, my mother, used to go to the circuit and we were just a normal family,” Ogura says.
Perhaps inevitably, a young Ai began taking to the track himself with sister Karen. “(We raced together) a lot, especially in the pocket bike time. And we were in the same class, and she always beat me. It’s not a good memory for me, but for her, yes,” the now 24-year-old laughs.
Karen Ogura went on to enjoy success as a professional rider, eventually racing in Moto America in the United States. Ai instead found his opportunity in the feeder classes of MotoGP, beginning with the Asia Talent Cup, graduating to the Red Bull Rookies Cup, then into Moto3 and Moto2. It was in that penultimate class of racing that Ogura caught the attention of a somewhat unlikely top-flight suitor.
When storied NASCAR franchise Trackhouse announced it was rolling onto the MotoGP grid just weeks before the start of the 2024 season, its last-minute arrival surprised many.
Backed by rapper Pitbull, and with bikes decked in boldly patriotic Stars & Stripes livery, the team looked set to bring All-American-style razzmatazz to motorcycle racing’s international premier class.
After a respectable but unspectacular first season, many expected the Nashville-based organization to double down on its American identity and bring promising Californian rider Joe Roberts into its stable for 2025. But Justin Marks, the former NASCAR racer who heads up Trackhouse, was instead keen to scan the field.
“We wanted to bring in somebody that we could build, that could grow with the team and that we could be with for a long time,” Marks tells CNN. “So, when we were looking at the rookies, you know, there was a lot of opportunity in Moto2, there’s just so much talent, there’s not really an outlier that’s like the one guy.”
Making a bet
Ogura appeared to have the kind of talent and temperament that would allow him to thrive in the intensely demanding MotoGP class, but Davide Brivio, the veteran Trackhouse Team Principal, admits it was a gamble.
“You kind of make a bet, you know, because you choose a guy that is in Moto2, there’s no chance to test in MotoGP. You cannot make any assessment. You just have to rely on potential, you know? In future potential,” the Italian explains to CNN Sports.
“And that’s what we did with Ai. We thought he was talented. We thought that he had a riding style close to MotoGP, or potentially becoming a MotoGP style. Also, we really liked his approach last year, sometimes in difficulty, some bad starts, to keep recovering, resilience, and fighting.”