Twelve months ago it would have been unthinkable that just three Japanese machines started a MotoGP™ race. Injuries to key players Marc Marquez, Joan Mir and Rins kept them off the grid but you still have to go back those 54 years to find less Japanese machines preparing to start a premier class Grand Prix. At the final round of the 1969 500cc World Championship, Australian Terry Dennehy was the only rider on the grid for the Adriatic Grand Prix riding a Japanese motorcycle. Fresh from a fourth place at the penultimate round at Imola, he arrived at the infamous 6.00 kms cliff-top road circuit at Opatija for the 29-lap race riding the Honda he’d converted from a CB450 cc road bike housed in Drixton frame. Unfortunately, he retired from that race in Yugoslavia but still finished a credible 12th in the final World Championship standings. Not only was the pioneering Australian the only Japanese starter but he was also the only rider to score points in the 12-round World Championship riding a Japanese machine.

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