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Suzuka 2002 Click here for the Suzuka LIVE LINK! Click here for QUALIFYING & RESULTS!
I
remember earlier this season speculating on the appearance of the RCV Honda at
Suzuka...I was right!
My
next road bike...
Greetings from a hot and sticky Suzuka!
(Thursday 1st August 2002 - 94 degrees today and intense humidity)
GMT94
Ichiro ASAÏ will be replacing Christophe Guyot after his nasty crash at Spa-Francorchamps, riding the GMT bike with Sébastien Scarnato and William Costes. The
Japanese rider was introduced to GMT by Franck Peret (Moto Journal’s correspondent in Japan) and is considered as a fast, reliable and safe rider by the Japanese
MOTUL people.
Suzuka
8 Hour - Free Practice 2002 is the 25th
anniversary year of the Suzuka 8 Hour. Last
year’s Suzuka winner Colin Edwards, paired with Daijiro Kato on the
No.11 Cabin Honda SP-W are favourites to win. Ukawa is unfit to ride
after his crash at Donnington. Edwards
has put in a record time of 2:06.918, well over a second faster than the next
quickest in practice. Suzuki MotoGP
stars Ryo and Kagayama on a GSX-R750 are second fastest, Barros and Takeda third
on a Sakurai Honda SP-W with Tamada and Okada fourth on the No.33 Cabin Honda
bike. Tenth fastest are the US
pairing of 1997 World Endurance Champion Doug Polen and WERA rider Mike Smith on
a Honda Fireblade. News from the Permanent Teams The permanent teams are
concentrated mid-field so far with Suzuki GB Phase One the fastest, in 23rd.
Championship leaders Nowland and Mertens on Zongshen No.2 are 30th
fastest, GMT94 31st, Zongshen No.9 33rd, Police Nationale
34th while Verboven Hooters are 61st. Zongshen have had a few minor
problems but Michel Marqueton said the team is working well and everyone is in
good spirits. Suzuki GB Phase One are pleased with their progress so far with
riders Jason Pridmore and “Spike” Edwards enjoying themselves.
Pete Linden seems set to come out of retirement to ride for the British
team at the Oschersleben 24 Hour next weekend. GMT94’s Christophe Guyot is
making a fast recovery from his Spa crash and says that he will ride at
Vallelunga “for sure”. The
French team had engine problems earlier in the week and their race looked to be
in doubt when their local rider Asai crashed yesterday however the damage has
been repaired. Police Nationale are using a borrowed bike, which is down on
power. The teams’ Gwen Giabbani:
“That’s Endurance”. Verboven
Hooters have had problems and are working frantically to get the bike ready for
qualifying.
Good morning from Suzuka. (11AM LOCAL TIME) In eleventh place, the “YO-Tornado S-1R” of Takeishi/Serizawa is a Suzuki tuned to GP specification by Yoshimura. Polen takes twelfth place for Arata Ex & Tsukigi but his partner Mike Smith is replaced by T. Mori. Also qualifying well are the US/Canadian pairing of Fergusson/Szoke on their Corona Extra Ebsco GSX-R1000 in 18th place, the top placed Superproduction machine and the only one to make the top twenty.
Current
World Championship leaders Zongshen qualified right behind Phase One in 23rd and
24th place with French teams GMT94 qualified in 37th position, with the Team 22 Police team in 36th position. The Belgium team QMS, riding a Aprillia RSV
have failed to qualify (78th) and will not ride in Sundays race. The final order of the top twenty will be decided later today by a Superpole session. Qualifying positions for Sundays race were finally released late last night
with Phase One just missing the superpole cut by 2 places, in 22nd position overall.
Permanent Teams Head To Head Edwards and Pridmore for Phase
One lead the permanent teams in 22nd place, however the two Zongshen
bikes are right behind with Mertens/Nowland 23rd and Bonhuil/Jerman
24th. Police
Nationale qualify ahead of GMT94 for the first time at any endurance race, the
two French teams taking 36th and 37th place.
Verboven Hooters qualify in 66th.
Although the permanent teams are up against the best that the Japanese
factories can provide, their greater endurance experience will undoubtedly give
them an edge over the other teams, particularly if there is any rainfall during
the race – the forecast is giving an increased chance of some rain tomorrow.
With 84 teams entered and 66 places available on the grid, competition to qualify has been fierce and as a result some of the more interesting entries have been excluded, including the Z1 of Extec Asahina, the 1100-engined GPZ900 Ninja of Radio-i Primal and the BMW R1100S of Boxer Sports. Also not making the cut is the ex-permanent team QMS Racing. The Superpole shoot out saw
each of the riders from the fastest twenty teams from yesterday’s
qualification session on the track with the final race order decided by the
fastest lap from each pair of riders, rather than an average of the two times as
in previous years. Barros Fastest, Edwards Second Barros/Takeda on the No.71
Sakurai Honda maintain pole with a time of 2:06.577.
Barros was forced to fend off a determined effort by Edwards who brought
the No.11 Cabin Honda bike up to second. The
No.33 Cabin Honda of Okada/Tamada is third, pushing Ryo and Kagayama’s Suzuki
down to fourth. The Superpole session did not provide any major upsets to the
provisional grid positions, other than for the No.95 Sakurai Honda of Nukumi/Nakatomi,
which moved up five places to fifth. The SuperProduction GSX-R 1000 of Szoke/Fergusson
moves up to 15th place. Top European qualifiers Suzuki GB - Phase One, will start in 22nd position followed by the two bikes of Zongshen. MotoGP v. WSB? In the press conference, we
asked the riders about the rivalry between MotoGP and WSB. Kato: “There is no rivalry -
we’re on the same team, the settings are Colin’s”. Barros: “All our lap times
are very close and endurance is a different kind of race anyway.
The team is the most important thing”. First Hour The race has begun in blazing sun and high
temperatures. 70 bikes started with
four additional teams admitted, including the BMW R1100S of Boxer Sports. Ryo on the No.7 Suzuki has taken the initial
lead, breaking away along with the pair of Cabin Hondas and the No.8 GSX-R1000
of Kenz J-Trust&Mojo. Tamada on
the No.33 Cabin Honda ridden has taken the lead from Ryo after a few laps and
Kato on the No.11 quickly moved into second however a minor crash has dropped
No.8 down to 44th place. Takeda on the pole position No.71 Sakurai Honda is now
fourth. Phase One’s race has got off to a disastrous
start with the radiator bursting on the start line.
Repairs have set the team back by 9 minutes, dropping them to 60th
place. Verboven Hooters also have
pulled in with problems dropping them to 63rd place.
The team have traced the problem to the CDI unit after a second stop and
losing the team a further 2 places. Both
Zongshen bikes are running with no major problems so far, with No.2 Mertens/Nowland
in 18th place and No.9 Bonhuil/Jerman in 19th. GMT94 are 22nd
and Police Nationale 33rd. Second Hour As the leading teams make their pit stops, the
race order is shuffling; currently Edwards on the No.11 Cabin Honda leads with
the No.7 Team Suzuki GSX-R750 and No.33 Cabin Honda close behind.
Kato has put in the fastest lap so far with a 2:08.633. Zongshen No.2 has moved up to 12th
place with Zongshen No.9 close behind in 13th.
The Estok GSX-R of Fergusson/Szokes is 16th.
Police Nationale are 29th.
Phase One have moved up to 48th and are currently lapping a second faster than rivals Zongshen No.2. GMT94’s race ended when Costes crashed and was brought back to the pit on the pillion seat of a scooter. Fifth Hour
The top three are still Cabin
Honda No. 11, Team Suzuki No. 7 and Cabin Honda No. 33 with Barros /Takeda
maintaining fourth. Zongshen No.2 moves up to tenth
place, but the bike is giving off a strong, hot smell.
TheZongshen No.9 bike remains one place behind but the team does not
think there are currently any causes for concern with either bike.
Police Nationale are 21st
while Phase One have moved up to 31st – two laps behind the French
team. The British team has had no further trouble with their bike, although
rider Mike Edwards has found the temperatures hard to deal with.
Russell Benney: “We’ve had no problems since we got going – we’re
just twenty places further down than we should be”.
Verboven Hooters are 45th.
Sixth
Hour The No.7 Team Suzuki GSX-R750
has retired with engine failure. Kagayama
coasted back into the pits where the pit doors were firmly pulled shut behind
him. The No.11 Cabin Honda in first
place has pulled out a gap of one lap over the No.33 Cabin Honda in second while
Barros/Takeda on the Sakurai Honda are third.
As the race moves towards the
last two hours the light is beginning to fade but the temperature remains high
and many riders are now suffering from the effects of extreme exhaustion.
This gruelling race has a long way to go yet. Are the two Zongshen bikes
racing each other? The No.2 bike is
now up to 8th and the No.9 bike 10th, and are both still
on the same lap. The Chinese team
does not run team orders. SUZUKI GB PHASE ONE FINISH 18th AT SUZUKA 2002
Jason Pridmore at the
finish...
The 25th Suzuka 8
hour race attracted a record entry from the Permanent FIM World Endurance
Championship teams. Zongshen made a
return visit to Suzuka, entering both their Championship leading No.2 bike
(Mertens/Nowland) and No.9 (Bonhuil/Jerman).
QB Phase One, also veterans of Suzuka, entered their No.3 bike (Pridmore/Edwards)
currently in second place in the championship, seven points behind Zongshen 9
while GMT94, third in the championship, made their first appearance at the
Japanese track. Also entering were
Police Nationale and Herman Verboven/Hooters. Honda Dominate QualifyingThe qualifying sessions were
dominated by Honda who had brought the cream of their talent to the Japanese
track and took the first three positions on the grid following the Superpole
session. Barros/Takeda took pole
position on the Sakurai Honda VTR SP-W with Kato/Edwards and Tamada/Okada on a
pair of Cabin Honda SP-W machines in second and third.
MotoGP stars Ryo and Kagayama took their Team Suzuki GSX-R750 to fourth
place on the grid.
The permanent teams were
largely bunched together in two groups with Phase One 22nd, Zongshen
No.2 23rd and Zongshen No.9 24th.
Police Nationale, using a borrowed machine, qualified 36th
while GMT94 and Verboven Hooters had a number of problems during the qualifying
sessions and were 37th and 66th respectively. Gruelling Racing but Strong ResultsThe race was run in perfect but
extremely hot and humid conditions. The
Honda trio dominated the race from the early stages, although Ryo and Kagayama
were a threat until their Suzuki suffered engine failure after six hours.
Phase One suffered a serious
problem on the warm up lap, the radiator of their GSX-R1000 splitting and
forcing a frantic pitstop, which lost the team nine minutes.
Verboven Hooters were also forced into the pits in the first session with
electrical problems losing the team vital time.
After the first hour GMT94
suffered an engine failure which caused their retirement but the remaining
permanent teams were able to run generally problem free races, although rider
fatigue from the extreme temperatures and humidity was a problem for all.
Some intermittent rain fell in the last hour of the race, but was
insufficient to cause any problems. The race was won by the No.11
Cabin Honda ridden by Kato/ Edwards. The
No.33 Cabin Honda of Tamada/Okada was second and Barros/Takeda on the No.71
Sakurai Honda was third.
Colin Edwards on the podium:
“We had a tough time but the best team won.
Kato was awesome in the difficult last hour.” The Permanent teams showed
their quality with strong results. Both
Zongshen bikes finished in the top ten with the No.2 machine of Mertens/Nowland
making steady progress throughout the race to finish 7th, extending
their Championship lead to 11 points. The
Zongshen No.9 machine (Bonhuil/Jerman) finished 10th; a superb
overall result from the Chinese team which strengthens their hold on the
Championship which moves to the vital 24 hour round at Oschersleben in Germany
next weekend (August 10/11). FIM World Endurance
Championship Positions After Four Rounds (provisional): 1: Zongshen 2 (67
points) FINAL RESULTS
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