|
|
|
2011
|
8 Hours of SUZUKA - 3rd August 2003 Pictures at bottom of page 160 kilometers from Osaka, first ever motorcycle race here at Suzuka was held in 1962 with only 6 competitors. The Suzuka circuit is 5821 meters long in a figure 8 design and is one of the longest tracks in the world. All of the big four Japanese manufacturers would be desperate to win here at their home round, though Honda most of all. They own the circuit and have won the 8 Hours for the last 6 years. It is Suzuki, though, who have dominated the World Endurance Championship this year Sinishi
Itoh put the No.778 FCC TSR Honda Fireblade on pole after the special Superpole
session with Yukio Kagayama on the No.12 Yoshimura Daxim Suzuki in 2nd
and Kitagawa on the No.8 Kenz J-Trust Suzuki in 7th, 6 out of the top
ten runners on Hondas. With a massive 80 bike entry and 70 bikes starting the race it was going to be a tough 8 hours and as the riders fired the bikes into the first turn it was a matter of honour to the team that led and the FCC Honda pit crew were ecstatic, although the major entries wouldn’t be taken many chances this early in the race…already, though, there were problems, the Over Yamaha having blown it’s engine when it left the grid and it was leaving a line of oil around the first corner. Eventually the Over Yamaha was pulled off the circuit, the oil flags were out…but the riders were just about to complete their first lap and would be going at speed into the first corner with their heads down after just checking their pit boards Into
the first corner and the No11 Seven Stars Honda, the No.12 Yoshimura Suzuki and
the No.74 Sakurai Honda all went down. There
was pandemonium in the gravel for Hayden, Kagayama and Okada and their pit crews
couldn’t believe their bad luck. The
No.7 Seven Stars Honda now led with the team of Izutzu and Ukawa Many thought that the race should have been red-flagged but the Clerk of the Course brought out the pace car for 20 minutes and many in the pits were angry that the damaged machines were brought back for repairs by truck which would cause confusion later in the race. Seven Stars Honda rider Nicky Hayden said that he didn’t see any oil flags being shown on the straight but saw one as he was turning in to the corner but by then it was too late. As the pace car circulated, the damaged bikes arrived back at the pits by truck. World Endurance rules say that to stay in the race, the bike has to be brought back to the pits by the rider, either ridden or pushed. The
Yoshimura Daxim Suzuki was back in the pits, Yukio Kagayama apparently uninjured
as the No 11 Seven Stars Honda and No .74 Sakurai Honda were also brought in,
along with their riders. 20 minutes later, the Pace car was in and the race started again with the second Seven Stars Honda, the No.7 with Tohru Ukawa on board and the Kenz J-Trust Suzuki No.8 leading the pack on a track, which was still very slippery. Many people feared that with the loss of the most fancied teams that the race would lose some of its excitement but over the next hour both the leading bikes would contest every corner. Ukawa
started to pull away from the chasing pack but the Kenz J-Trust Suzuki No.8 and
the No.71 Sakurai Honda were able to close him down again when the Pace car came
out 5 laps after the restart, as another rider had fallen at the hairpin -
enabling the pack to close up again. Phase One No.3 rider Jason Pridmore was
down in 15th place and trying to stay out of trouble. He said it was
hotter riding slow behind the pace car than riding fast. With a 10 second gap over the Kenz J-Trust No.8 Suzuki; the No.7 Seven Stars Honda V-Twin was now leading the race. There was consternation in the pits shortly afterwards - the other Seven Stars Honda, the No.11 came back onto the track apparently fully repaired, rejoining the race in 68th place. Along with the No.74 Sakurai Honda, it would immediately be black-flagged. The No.778 XF-1 class FCC TSR Honda Fireblade of Sinichi Itoh and Takeshi Tsujimura was back racing but not without problems of it’s own, down in 38th place after the first hour. Izutzu
had had a small crash at the hairpin, breaking a handlebar and footrest and the
time taken to replace them would put the No.8 Kenz J-Trust Suzuki in the lead. So,
once more – but this time at Honda’s own track – a Suzuki would lead in
World Endurance. The No.8 Kenz J-Trust Suzuki of Kitagawa and Fujiwara were out
to consolidate their lead, chased by the No.44 Weider Honda Fireblade, the No.71
Sakurai Honda and the No.21 YSP & Presto Yamaha R1. We saw repairs being done to the No.7 Honda in the pit lane and not inside the pits…and that’s not allowed in the rules! The No.7 machines problems, though, were a godsend to the Chinese Zongshen No.1 team who by now were up to 6th place, 1 minute 20 seconds behind the leaders. Soon former double 125cc World Champion Haruchika Aoki was on the leaders tail. Of the permanent World Endurance teams, Police Nationale No.22 Suzuki was in 8th, Zongshen No.2 in 11th and Phase One No.3 in 13th. The
No.44 Honda was able to take the lead away from the No.8 Suzuki - to the delight
of the pit crew. The No. 7 Seven Stars Honda had gotten back out on track but down in 24th place. After a lap to warm the tyres, they’d be right on the pace again. The No.44 Wieder Fireblade leading at Hondas home track…but they couldn’t shake off the No.8 Suzuki. It was a rather long pit stop for the Wieder Honda and as Osamu Deguchi rejoined with the Fireblade, the Kenz J-Trust No.8 Suzuki was back in the lead. With
the Hondas able to last over one hour before refueling, the Suzuki team knew
that they would have to keep up the pressure. The Seven Stars Honda No.7 had to come back into the pits after 54 laps. After setting the fastest lap of the race, mechanical problems seemed to be ruling them out of the race. The pit crew worked desperately trying to find out what was wrong with the No.7 Honda V-Twin…and again they worked on the bike in the pit lane instead of inside the box! That meant that the Sakurai Honda V-Twin was now in 2nd place, being chased by the No.21 YSP & Presto Yamaha R1 with the Wieder Honda No.44 in 4th Of the permanent teams, the Zongshen No.1 of Nowland and Mertens were 7th, the Police Nationale N.22 in 9th, both 1 lap down with Phase One No.3 two laps adrift in 10th. The Zongshen No.2 Suzuki was in 24th place and the X-One Team Mondial 7 laps down in 42nd place. The
Zongshen team had won every race so far this year, either with the No.1 or the
No.2 bike – but Suzuka is where the Japanese rule and, despite the best
efforts of the Chinese team, the Japanese “big guns” where out to make sure
that at least a Japanese team would win. While watching team mate Warwick
Nowland, Stephane Mertens was overheard to say that he wouldn’t mind if the
race was stopped at that moment. I would think that Honda and the 87,000 crowd
(well up on last year) wouldn’t have liked that at all. In the Division 2 battle, the No.4 La Bella Speed Ducati Monster was 43rd in the race but 2nd in class behind the Project “Big-1” No.33 Honda CB1300. Suzuka is very different from the other World Endurance rounds, with SuperProduction, Superbike, Japan Superbike, Division 1, Division 2 and Open-class, or what the Japanese call XX Formula classes running at the same time, not all able to score championship points. Along with the No.4 Ducati Monster and the No.33 Honda CB1300 was the No.135 Boxer Sports Club BMW R1100S, along with various Yamaha R1-R7 hybrids At this time there was only a 12 second gap for the Kenz J-Trust No.8 Suzuki over 2nd place, it would mean that the No.71 Sakurai Honda would briefly take the lead at the next pit stop. It
didn’t take long for the No.8 Suzuki to get its tyres up to temperature and
close back up to the leading Honda. Then came some top class riding as the
Suzuki took only two laps to catch up to the Sakurai Honda. Once again, the
class of the endurance field, the Japan Superbike class GSXR1000 proving to have
the speed over the pure Superbike-specification SPW Honda V-twin. The Suzuki
teammates of Kitagawa and Fujiwara brought their world-class talent to bear on
the Honda teammates of Yukio Nukumi and Gaku Kamada. Of the battles being waged behind the leaders, one of the closest and hardest-fought was that between the No.86 Corona Ti-Force Suzuki, ridden by American Jordan Szoke and Britain’s Paul Young and the French Police Nationale & Tsukigi No.22 team with Gwen Giabbani and Takaharu “Taku” Kishida, both teams fighting over 8th place, one lap down on the leaders. As
the light was starting to fade, he No.8 Kenz J-Trust Suzuki was only just being
able to hold off the challenge from the Sakurai Honda…the battle had been
going on since the first hour of the race and showed no signs of stopping. There were no problems for the No.71 V-Twin Honda at their last pit stop but the Kenz J-Trust No.8 Suzuki, after leading for most of the race, their engine wouldn’t fire up after their last stop and they were losing all the time they had gained over the Honda 29
minutes left in the race and the No.71 Sakurai Honda had taken the lead. There
was yet another godsend for the permanent teams, as the 4th placed
No.39 Team Challenger Yamaha R1 crashed on lap 199, which, combined with the
No.8 Suzukis problems, would move most teams up two places 3 minutes to go and all the Honda team had to do was keep the bike going…their nearest challengers were the No.21 YSP & Presto Yamaha R1 of Sinichi Nakatomi and Wataru Yoshikawa one lap down with the FCC TSR Honda Fireblade of Takeshi Tsujimura and Sinichi Itoh a further lap adrift. The
Sakurai Honda crossed the line in first place, so that would now be 7 years in a
row that Honda have won the 8 Hours of Suzuka - but this was one of the luckiest
victories so far, the Kenz J-Trust Suzuki leading for most of the race and only
a mystery electrical fault stopping them from a famous upset. The No.8 Kenz
Suzuki would eventually be classified as 40th, 24 laps down. With the exclusion of many non-championship teams from scoring, the result put the Phase One No.3 team just 14 points behind the leaders Zongshen No.1 in the World Championship points table.
|
|
