Suzuka 8 Hours World Endurance Results

The Yoshimura Suzuki team took the honors at this weekend’s 32nd running of the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance race in Japan. The Suzuki GSX-R1000 team of Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki took victory with a one-lap gap over second-placed Kawasaki Trick Star Racing’s Hiloyasu Izutsu, Shinya Takeishi and Ryuji Tsuruta. Takumi Takahashi and Chojun Kameya made a late charge aboard the Dream RT Sakurai Honda CBR1000RR to finish 40 seconds back from the Kawasaki squad in third.

Honda suffered an early blow when its pole starting FCC TSR Honda bike piloted by Kosuke Akiyoshi crashed out of the lead on Lap 2 at the Spoon Curve. Tatsuya Yamaguchi of the Harc-Pro Honda team inherited the lead after starting second on the grid.

Kosuke Akiyoshi: “When I fell on the second lap at the “S” curve, I turned (banked) my machine too much and the fairing touched the edge of the curve and the front end slid away. I thank the team staff who fixed the machine so quickly. With that I was able to bring the bike up to ninth position, which witnessed the potential of machine. If I have a chance next time, I want to challenge for the victory.”

The lead group of Yamaguchi (Harc-Pro Honda), Sakai (Yoshimura Suzuki) and Takahashi (Dream RT Sakurai Honda) than began to distance themselves from the other teams and settle into a fast rhythm. At the 30 minute make Honda was dealt another bad card when Yamaguchi crashed the Harc-Pro CBR1000RR, giving the Yoshimura GSX-R1000 a clear path ahead of the Sakurai team and the Plot Faro Panthera Suzuki team in third.

Tatsuya Yamaguchi: “At the beginning of the race, I saw Akiyoshi fall in front of me, so I reminded myself to be careful and brought my mind together once again. However, I was hit by the other machine from behind. It was very unfortunate.”

Free of serious pressure the Yoshimura team was able to ride a textbook race as all the teams were slowed by the mixed weather conditions, which brought out the pace car on four occasions. After one hour they were 40 seconds clear of the field, by the second hour double that, and at mid-point nearly a lap ahead of the Plot Farro Panthera Team. Trick Star Kawasaki held third place just clear of the Honda Dream RT Sakurai CBR1000RR.

An interesting battle for the minor podium positions saw the Trick Star team hold sway over the hard charging Kameya of the Sakurai Honda Team for second.

Chojun Kameya: “I used a poultice and painkillers for my injured arm for the race. Today, I promised to the team to be within the top three places, and the team supported us to reach that goal and I have to thank them for what they did for us. At my very last run, I was able to bring the bike up to third place. This year, I suffered with injury and was change of rider line-up. Considering those change in the environment of the team, we did our best!”

The Suzuki Plot Faro Panthera squad faded to fifth behind the championship points leading Yamaha Austria Racing Team.



2009 Suzuka 8 Hours Results
1. Yoshimura Suzuki (D.Sakai, K.Tokudome, N.Aoki), 183 laps, 8:01'59.916 
2. Kawasaki Trick Star Racing (H.Izutzu, S.Takeishi, R.Tsuruta), 182
3. Dream RT Sakurai Honda (T.Takahashi, C.Kameya), 182
4. Yamaha Austria Racing Team (I.Jerman, S.Martin, G.Giabbani), 181
5. Suzuki Plot Faro Panthera (O.Deguchi, K.Teramoto), 180
6. Kawasaki Beet Racing (O.Nishijima, K. Hasegawa), 179
7. Honda D.D.Boys with A-Style (Y.Kodama, K. Tsuda), 179
8. Honda Team Plus One & TSR (S.Iwata, Y.SUGAI, K.Watanabe), 179
9. F.C.C. TSR Honda (K.Akiyoshi, S.Ito, Y.Teshima), 178
10. Honda Teluru HoneybeeRacing (H.Noda, T.Sekiguchi), 178
11. Yamaha BK Maco Moto Racing Team (D.Ribalta, J.Pridmore), 176
12. Phase One Endurance (P.Vallcaneras, G.Gowland, D.Cudlin), 176
13. Yamaha Team Etching Factory (S.Takemi, Y.Usami, K.Adachi), 175
14. Honda Escargot  (M.Kuboyama, T.Nakatsuhara), 175
15. Honda Dream RT Wakayama ( M.Ouchida, A.Yuzaki), 173
16. Suzuki Gagner H.M.F (Y.Takamiya, Y.Takahashi, S.Suma), 173
17. Honda Ryokuyoukai Kumamoto (M.Yoshida, M.Iida, S.Noyori), 171
18. Honda EG Racing (T.Kuribayashi, M.Hondo), 171
19. Honda Team N.K.B (H.Takada, S.Harada), 171
20. Kawasaki Team38 PS-K (S.Yamashita, T.Miyauchi), 170
21. Honda Technical College (Y.Hamaguchi, M.Furusawa), 170
22. Yamaha Team Frontier Cleverwolf Racing (M.Saito, T.Fukami, M.Langlois), 170
23. Honda Team Garage Complete with CRAFT (H.Nakayama, T.Minoda, N.Yamada), 169
24. Yamashina Kawasaki & Business Ralliart (T.Mizusawa, S.Yamasaki), 169
25. Honda Rockstar x Battle & I Love Café (Y.Kirii, S.Shimoji), 169
26. Yamaha t.motokids css kawauso rt (Y.Higuchi, K.Kojima), 168
27. Honda Verity Racing Team (A.Igarashi, M.Sato)
28. Team Nakaki Honda (M.Nakayama, H.Nomura), 168
29. Honda Blue Helmets MSC (T.Otsuka, A.Kobayashi), 167
30. Honda Crown Keibihosyou Racing (D.Yano, S.Suzuki), 167
31. Yamaha Team Etching Factory (T.Nakai, M.Nakaoka, K.Yagyu), 166
32. Suzuki Winner Z-Tech (T.Kunimatsu, T.Namekata), 166
33. Kawasaki RS-ITOH & ASIA (I.Higashimura, N.Shimizu), 166
34. Honda kohyohkai Dream Racing & SHOWA (H.Nakamura, I.Matsubara, T.Ebinuma), 166
35. Honda bestbikemito&e, freaks&mk (H.Takano, S.Okada, S.Baba), 162
36. Yamaha Team Kanaya (T.Ooka, M.Yuba, S.Yumoto), 161
37. Banner Racing (T.Kaneda, D.Sato, T.Yokobe), 160
38. Honda Suzuka Community Racing Team (Y.Fukuda, H.Matsui), 155
39. Honda O.I.R.F-R.T (C.Yuzuki, K.Mitsumoto, T.Tamura), 154
40. Kawasaki Wise Word & Tokai Auto&Green Sports (T.Noda, Y.Iritani, K.Nakamura), 153
41. Kawasaki Plus One MCRT (H.Imazu, M.Nishikawa), 152
42. Ducati Labellezza Speed Exstar & PIAA (H.Kawahara, Y.Hori), 151
43. MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO (T.Yamaguchi, T.Yasuda, Y.Konishi), 147
44. Suzuki Ohnishi Heat Magic with Dragon (T.Onishi, Y.Hatano), 146
45. Yamaha Team Sports Fighter (T.Tsuda, T.Satake), 140
46. Yamaha Hitman RC Koshien TKm (T.Kimura, Y.Nakanishi), 139
47. Suzuki MotoMap Supply (Y.Konno, D.Suzuki, M.Shinjo), 137

FIM Endurance Championship Points Standings - After 4 of 6 Rounds
1. Yamaha Austria Racing Team - 111
2. RT Racing Team - 47
3. Amadeus X-One – 40
4. Bolliger Team Switzerland – 38
5. Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers – 35
6. Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo – 30
7. BK Maco Moto Racing Team – 29
8. Honda France – 28
9. Trick Star Racing – 24
10. Yamaha Folch Endurance – 24
11. No Limits – 24
12. Michelin Power Research Team – 23
13. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team – 22
14. Honda Dream RT Sakurai – 19
15. Phase One Endurance - 18.