The Moto3 world championship visited Japan for the first race of an Asia-Pacific leg of the 2025 campaign with Gqberha rider Ruche Moodley amongst the packed field of young hopefuls who took to the 4,8 km-long Mobility Resort Motegi for the 17^th round of the season and it turned out to be a  daunting task for the sole South African  rider in the category.

“I had only ever seen the Motegi Circuit on TV, watching my racing heroes compete there since I was very little and it looks extremely fast on a proper race bike. As this was my very first visit to this track, I knew it was going to be a challenge but we made very good progress from Friday’s practice sessions to qualifying. Even though I narrowly missed out on passing directly into Q2, my confidence grew with each passing lap. I knew I’d do well in the race if I kept pushing the limits.” said the rookie who went on to start Sunday’s main event in 19^th place on the grid.

Moodley’s race starts have been identified as an area where he can certainly improve, as during the season he has lost many positions in the early stages of the races. “I had a good start from 19^th place with a nice clear run down to turn one on the ideal racing line. That allowed me to brake late into turn one and I passed quite a few riders on the first lap.” said Moodley who was lying in 15^th place when the large field completed the opening lap of the race.

Moodley’s position yo-yoed in the mid-teens for a while as he battled with his rivals, however, at about one third race distance there was unexpected light rain with certain parts of the track experiencing a drizzle while other parts remained completely dry. The rain was not heavy enough to warrant changing from slicks to treaded tyres and this meant that riders were second guessing grip levels at all points of the circuit with the varying grip levels unfortunately catching out the BOE Motorsports rookie as a tiny error dropped him from 17^th to 22^nd place. As quickly as the rain came, it then disappeared with Moodley maintaining his composure despite the earlier mistake.

“Some riders were prepared to take bigger risks than others during the wet laps and this really strung out the field, which made it difficult to catch the guys ahead. Without a slipstream it’s not easy to set quick lap times.” Said Moodley who kept his kept his head down and crossed the finish line in 19^th place.

“It was a tough weekend from the get-go, but we completed every lap of the race, which has been a goal from the very start of my rookie season. We learn with every lap and take those lessons into the closing part of the season,” concluded the youngster.