SUZUKA RESULTS PAGES HERE

LIVE TIMING HERE

The Suzuka 8 Hours round of the FIM World Endurance Championship has been won by theNo.7 Seven Stars Honda of Kiyonari and Ukawa, with the No.11 Seven Stars Honda of Vermeulen and Fujiwara in second place and the HARC Pro Honda of Aoki and Yasuda third.
Although the No.7 bike was one of the first to pit for fuel, it had already built up a ten second lead at the end of the first hour. While the No.778 FCC TSR Honda, the Yoshimura Suzuki, the Masked Rider Honda, the Moriwaki Honda and the YSP Yamaha fought for position the No.7 Honda was able to increase its lead over the course of the second hour. When a thunderstorm brought heavy rain at the start of the third hour, the two Seven Stars Hondas made the most of their Michelin rain tyres to move clear of the rest of the field. Suzuki 0123 Castrol had been up to third place before Kitagawa crashed, dropping the world championship leaders back down the standings. Yamaha Phase One also crashed and were forced to make their way back though the busy field, while their championship rivals Yamaha Austria were able to stay out of trouble and move into the top ten.
The Seven Stars Hondas continued to circulate relentlessly as their rivals either fell behind or crashed in an effort to maintain the pace once the track dried. Suzuki Castrol eventually closed to seventh place, Yamaha Austria finished ninth, Yamaha Phase One (Nowland, Cudlin, Young) 18th, Shell Endurance Academy (Rohtlaan, Hogan, Wylie) 28th, Suzuki No Limits & RT MotorTeam (Ruozi, Giachino, Codeluppi) 41st
and Aprilia Motociclismo Test Team (Aliverti, Veghini, de Nardi) 43rd. The two permanent Kawasaki teams, Bolliger and Diablo, both crashed out of the race.

Quotes:
Vincent Philippe, Suzuki 0123 Castrol, 7th place: “Comme si, comme ca. This race was good for our championship, for sure. It was a difficult, difficult race; two small crashes lost us ten minutes in the pit, so this was not so good.”
Gwen Giabbani, Yamaha Austria, 9th place: “The race was pretty hard with the weather, but the first session was okay. After Igor went out the rain came and we ended up in tenth place; we were happy with that so we’re pleased to finish in ninth. At the start of the week we didn’t expect to do so well, and it’s good for our championship. The future is good.”
Russell Benney, Yamaha Phase One Endurance, 18th place: “I’ve come away from races many times with absolutely nothing before now, so I’m very pleased with our result today. We’ve got points on the board again, so we’re off to Oschersleben to use that as a spring board for the rest of the championship.”
Calvin Hogan, Shell Endurance Academy, 28th place: “The race has been good. We qualified low down but we always knew we’d make places up. We had a problem in the first stint with gear lever travel but we sorted it out fairly quickly. My second stint was in the rain which made it very difficult but it came to our advantage in the end because both of our main rivals – Bolliger and Diablo – had crashes, so for the championship it’s worked out really well. Very happy with the result.”
Federico Aliverti, Aprilia Motociclismo Test Team, 43rd place: “For us this was a very hard race, very difficult.”

LEON CAMIER AT SUZUKA - A LESSON IN EMBARRASSING THE BIG BOYS
18-year-old Leon Camier from Ashford in Kent in the U.K. returned from the tough Endurance race in Japan yesterday having successfully completed the Suzuka Eight-Hour Race and with his team-mate Naoki Matsudo they gained an impressive 15th place finish from 70 qualified teams. Riding for Moriwaki Honda the pairing were a strong force to be reckoned with - qualifying in 10th position on the grid both riders were set for a strong result.

In pre-race testing temperatures soared to a huge 40c with track temperatures hitting 60c over the course of the week. Camier had to adjust himself to the excessive heat and also the time differences. He was only 0.04 of a second off the qualifying time of World Superbike Star Chris Vermeulen, proving that he can certainly run amongst the best riders in the World.

Typically during the race the heavens opened and in the third hour the rain was extremely heavy on the Japanese Circuit. Whilst lying in third position overall, Camier touched the wet white line which saw him slide off into the gravel. Fortunately he was able to pick up the Honda and carry on back to the pits to repair the damage. The team dropped down to 46th position before clambering their way back through the field to gain a very creditable 15th place.

Commenting Camier said "It’s one of the best experiences of my racing career so far and something I will not forget. I was given a fantastic opportunity and I am extremely grateful for this chance. I met some incredible people out there who gained my respect and admiration. I must specially thank the whole Moriwaki Team, Midori the Team Manager was a fantastic help and encouraged me throughout the week and couldn’t have done enough for me. I felt extremely bad for crashing out and losing the opportunity of a podium finish, it was my first time that I had ridden a thousand in the rain as well as trying to dice with slower riders, I was just caught out."

"The team could not have been more professional, more helpful or more informative than what they were. I’m so happy that I got the chance to ride with them and would like to think that they might invite me back next year. Physically I felt fine throughout the race although I was suffering with pain in my feet. I have learnt so much from the whole trip and hope I can rely what I have learnt in Japan back into my racing in the UK for the rest of the season."
 

NAOKI MATSUDO	LEON CAMIER

Leons next outing will be at Silverstone British Superbike meeting (21st August) where he will be hoping to extend his lead in the British Supersport Championship.

BEN WYLIE AND THE SHELL ENDURANCE ACADEMY BOYS SUZUKA REPORT

Well, I am just returning from Japan after doing the Suzuka 8Hour race. I can honestly say it was the most difficult race meeting I have ever done - but also the most rewarding - and the whole trip was an awesome
experience. We arrived at Nagoya Airport on the Tuesday afternoon, the week of the race. One thing that made the whole experience so good was the hospitality of the Japanese, especially Yamaha, who
picked all 15 of us up from the airport and with all our baggage in a mini bus and a van, they took us to the
hotel.

On Wednesday morning Marko (Rohtlaan), Calvin (Hogan), Paul (Young) and myself met up with the Aussies Damo (Damian Cudlin) and Warwick (Nowland) and went down to the sign on and relax in the cold room which Yamaha had arranged for us which was fantastic as it was unbelievably hot and 75% humidity. There is a theme park at the circuit so we spent the day going on all the rides, although Youngy (Paul Young) wouldn't come on any of them and Warwick took some forcing!!

Practise was really difficult as it is a real hard track to learn and in practise we had a problem with the bike and then in my second practise i followed the pace car the whole time. So come Qualifying on Friday I had not done a full speed lap, we Qualified 59th with Markos' time of 2mins 18.1s as he'd been before. We thought that was pretty bad but the team said its ok as there is so many wild cards on fast bikes who are track specialists and that we would make a lot up in the race.

Marko started the race and we had a problem and had to make an unscheduled stop. then Calvin went and then it was my turn. Yamaha sorted out a doctor for us to give us a saline drip to help us hydrate. I had one before my first stint and felt like superman when I got on the bike. On my third lap I had a few spots of rain on
my visor going into the hairpin but chose to ignore them, then at the next corner (the new chicane) I got
out the seat big time and took it easy for a lap, then it lashed it down and I did about 40 minutes on slick in the rain, I kept it upright as people were dropping like flies in front of my. That at that point was the hardest endurance stint I've done to date. By my second stint the track looked wet on the telly still but when I got out there is was mostly dry and the bike felt like it had two hinges in the middle from the second lap. I was working so hard to stay on the thing whilst keeping a good pace. My last stint in was dry and going dark and that was really fun. We ended up 28th and 9th in class so I'm really happy with that.
It has moved us to 5th in the championship and only 8 points from 4th. I'm really looking forward to Osch next week, 4th in the world championship maybe!!!

After the race we spent a night in the log cabin having a few drinks and then on Monday went off to Nagoya and did some sight seeing and sampling the local delights. I'm now pumped for Osch sitting at Tokyo airport waiting to board the flight home.

A big thanks to Phase one for giving me this awesome opportunity and for Yamaha for taking such good care of us, It would have been a nightmare without them. !!

Ben Wylie
www.benwylie.com

POINTS STANDINGS after 3 ROUNDS

1 Suzuki Castrol Team Suzuki GSXR1000 74
2 Yamaha Austria Racing Team 7 Yamaha YZF-R1 46
3 Yamaha Phase One Endurance Yamaha YZF-R1 37
4 Bolliger Team Switzerland Kawasaki ZX10R 36
5 Seven Stars Honda 7 Honda CBR1000RRW 35
6 Shell Endurance Academy Yamaha YZF-R1 28
7 Diablo 666 Bolliger Kawasaki ZX10R 26
8 Yamaha Folch Endurance 23 Yamaha YZF-R1 24
9 Seven Stars Honda 11 CBR1000RRW 24
11 Yoshimura Suzuki Jomo Srixon Suzuki GSXR1000 13
12 Sapeurs Pompiers 18 Suzuki GSX-R1000 12
13 Int Power Factory Roadway Suzuki GSXR1000 12
14 Team Fagersjo-el.se Suzuki GSXR1000 10
15 Akai Sanrinsha Racing Club Honda CBR1000RRHonda CBR1000RR 10
16 Team X-One Yamaha YZF-R1 8
17 Team Power Bike Yamaha YZF-R1 8
18 Team RMT 21 Kawasaki ZX10R 7
19 Fabi Corse Suzuki GSXR1000 7
20 DRT Banana Hands Yamaha YZF-R1 7
21 Team Suzuki Nederland Suzuki GSXR1000 6
22 Bridgestone Bikers Profi Suzuki GSXR1000 6
23 Team Twenty One Meister Evolve Suzuki GSXR1000 6
24 Ducati Spring Team Ducati 999 5
 

VINCENT PHILIPPE ON THE "ATTACK" STAGE

30/07/2005
The No.778 FCC TSR Honda will start on pole position for tomorrow’s Suzuka 8 Hours round of the FIM World Endurance Championship. The top twenty grid positions are decided by a high-pressure two-part super pole style Special Stage session which sees two riders from each team attempt a single ultra-fast lap time. All of the ‘slower’ riders from each team go first, in the “Attack” stage. The quicker riders from each team then have chance to improve on their team mate’s performance in the “Jump Up” stage. The teams’ fastest times from either Attack or Jump Up stage are then used to set the grid positions.
No.7 Seven Stars Honda’s Toru Ukawa set the fastest time in the Attack phase with a time of 2:08.565. The No.778 FCC TSR Honda of Tsujimura was second and the No.12 Yoshimura Suzuki of Watanabe third. Suzuki Castrol’s Vincent Phillipe crashed halfway round his lap, to collective groans from the spectators packing the grandstands and pit lane. He had just set the fastest first sector split time of the day and seemed to be on the way to beating his personal best. His crash put extra pressure on Keiichi Kitagawa to do well in the “Jump Up” stage, but Special Stage old hand Kitagawa was able to pull the team back up to fifth place with a time of 2:09.616. Yamaha YSP Presto and FCC TSR Honda No.5 then both improved their first stage times, knocking Suzuki 123 Castrol back to an eventual seventh on the grid. Kiyonari was unable to beat his Honda team mate Ukawa’s time on the Jump Up stage, but Shinichi Itoh managed to shave half a second off Ukawa’s time in the second to last run of the day to take pole position for FCC TSR Honda with a time of 2:08.071.

YOSHIMURA SUZUKI ON THE ATTACK AND "JUMP-UP"

Another interesting observation is that Leon Camier was faster than his Japanese team-mate and kept the Moriwaki Honda in the top ten!

The WSB Superpole-style event was run in hot conditions and in front of a crowd of 41,000.
Yoshimura Suzuki Team Manager Fujio Yoshimura said: "We have the perfect set-up for the race. Yukio's lap time was better than our expectations and we are completely ready for 8 hours and hopefully a win."

SERT boss Dominique Melliand added: "We hope for a good race tomorrow. We hope win this race and 2005 Championship."

CASTROL SUZUKIS' KITAGAWA AND PHILIPPE LEARNING HOW TO KEEP THEIR HANDS WARM...

Top Ten Provisional Grid Positions
1st 778 – FCC TSR ZIP FM Honda – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – S.Itoh – 2:08.072
2nd 7 – Seven Stars Honda – JPN – Honda CBR1000RRW – T.Ukawa – 2:08.565
3rd 4 – Masked Rider Honda – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – K.Tokudome – 2:08.628
4th 12 – Yoshimura Suzuki – JPN – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – Y.Kagayama – 2:08.657
5th 21 – YSP & Presto Yamaha – JPN – Yamaha YZF-R1 – S.Nakatomi – 2:09.033
6th 55 – FCC TSR DyDo Honda – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – O.Deguchi – 2:09.336
7th 2 – Suzuki 0123 Castrol – FRA – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – K.Kitagawa – 2:09.616
8th 11 – Seven Stars Honda – JPN – Honda CBR1000RRW – K.Fujiwara – 2:09.744
9th 044 – Weider Honda ATS – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – S.Moriwaki – 2:10.068
10th 74 – Moriwaki Motul Tiger – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – L.Camier– 2:10.139

THE GORGEOUS SAMUEL DE NARDI - CHECK OUT THAT WAIST!

NOT QUALIFIED:
71st 51 XX-F Div.1 T・MOTOKIDS SHACHIHOKO-SHOUKAI Y-YZF-R1 Y.HIGUCHI/M.KAYAHARA/K.FUKUYAMA
72nd 77 JSB Team HASHIMOTO GUMI S-GSX-R1000 K.KANAYAMA/S.LEGROS/T.IGAMI
73rd 56 JSB PF racing & HEAT MAGIC S-GSX-R1000 K.NAKAMURA/T.TOMISHIGE
74th 170 JSB SANSEI with RACING WORLD H-CBR1000RR T.YAMAUCHI/Y.KAMIMURA
75th 111 SBK HONDA KOUYOUKAI Dream Racing Team &EGT-R H-CBR1000RR T.KURIBAYASHI/T.EBINUMA
76th 46 JSB Cruise&CLUBNEXT H-CBR1000RR M.MOGI/A.YOSHIHIRO
77th 1 XX-F Div.2 LA BELLEZZA SPEED D-MONSTER S4 Y.HORI/K.KOSAKA/T.UKAI
78th 67 JSB KITS & O-TEC SUZUKA B H-CBR1000RR K.WATASE/T.YAMAZAKI/T.NOHARA
79th 135 XX-F Div.2 BOXER SPORTS CLUB B-R1100S T.KUROKAWA/E.SAITO
80th 22 XX-F Div.2 OVER-RACING O-OV-23XV M.SUZUKI/H.TOYODA...(shame, at 2:23.705 the MT-01 special didn't make the grid)

29/07/2005...WHO IS THAT MASKED MAN?
Eighty teams have spent today fighting for seventy Suzuka 8 Hours grid positions, with the leading bikes also chasing a top-twenty position and entry into tomorrow’s Super Pole special stage.

Kazuki Tokudome on the No.4 Masked Rider Honda CBR1000RR put in the fastest time of the day with a lap of 2:08.245 to take provisional pole. Shinichi Ito was second quickest on the No.778 FCC TSR CBR1000RR with a best time of 2:08.820. These two Group A
riders were the only ones to dip into the 2:08 bracket. The quickest team in group B was third fastest overall, No.12 Yoshimura Suzuki’s Yukio Kagayama recording a time of 2:09.178. Fourth place overall went to the No.7 HRC Honda of Kiyonari and Ukawa (2:09.352), fifth overall to the No.55 FCC TSR Honda (2:09.547), sixth to the No.21 YSP Presto Yamaha (2:09.597) and seventh to the 044 Weider Honda(2:10.097). Suzuki Castrol were eighth overall with a time of 2:10.191 put in by Keichi Kitagawa, with team mate Vincent Philippe just a couple of tenths behind on 2:10.370. The Castrol Suzuki team have put their bike in front of Matsudo, Koshizawa and Britain's Leon Camier on the No.19 Moriwaki Honda CBR1000RR in 9th and wunderkind Chris Vermeulen and Katsuaki Fujiwara on the Seven Stars Honda who are in 11th. No.18 Team Yoshiharu's  Sugai and his American team-mate Josh Brooks are 21st, No.07 Yamaha Austria are 27th, Yamaha Phase One are 38th, Bolliger are 58th, Shell Academy 59th, Team No Limits 60th, Diablo 666 are 61st and Aprilia Motociclismo Test Team are 62nd...that's out of 70 teams who will qualify from the 80 entries.

The last team in qualifying is the Over Racing Yamaha O-OV-23XV (it's an MT-01 special).

Most interesting team names are No.24 Suzuki GSXR1000 FIVE HERETICS and No. 877 Yamaha R1 Team DRT BANANA HANDS :)

With ten qualifying sessions (three riders, two groups, two sessions per rider…) spread over nearly ten hours (qualifying started at 9:15am and finished at 18:45pm) the track and weather conditions have varied significantly over the course of the day. The top twenty starting grid positions will be decided by a double jeopardy two stage Super Pole contest tomorrow afternoon.
For the rest of the permanent World Endurance Championship teams qualifying has been about finding a set-up which will work on the incredibly technical track, and – for those here for the first time - simply learning the circuit.

TOP TEN
1) T.Yamaguchi / K.Tokudome (Honda) 2min 08.245.
2) T.Tsujimura / S.Itoh (Honda) 2min 08.820.
3) Atsushi Watanabe/ Yukio Kagayama (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2min 09.178.
4) T.Ukawa / R.Kiyonari (Honda) 2min 09.352.
5) Y.Teshima / O.Deguchi (Honda) 2min 09.547.
6) W.Yoshikawa / S.Nakatomi (Yamaha) 2min 09.597.
7) T.Hamaguchi / S.Moriwaki (Honda) 2min 10.097.
8) Keiichi Kitagawa / Vincent Phillipe (Suzuki Castrol) 2min 10.191.
9) L.Camier / N.Matsudo (Honda) 2min 10.417.
10) H.Aoki / T.Yasuda (Honda) 2min 10.691.

Qualifying Quotes:
Yukio Kagayama, Yoshimura Suzuki: "If I have more time, I would like to set-up to bike more, although we have the perfect chassis and handling for the race. The most important thing is about tyre choice for high temperature track. We had a very good day today but we need some luck to win the race." Team mate Atsushi Watanabe added: "Today I only aimed to make consistence lap times and I am now very confident for the race."

Chris Vermeulen, Seven Stars Honda 11: “There were a lot of backmarkers and I couldn’t get a clear lap. Japanese riders are very fast here, but if I can get a set of good tyres tomorrow I think I can get to the 2:09s during the Special stage.”

Vincent Philippe, Suzuki Castrol: “I think today it has been okay. Kitagawa did a good time in first qualifying, and today is cool for me because yesterday I crashed twice. I’ve changed tyres, and in the first session I just rode for the race; I’m now confident because
we can do consistent good lap times. The important thing is to be in Super Pole, so it’s ok, no problem!”

Gwen Giabbani, Yamaha Austria: “We are looking for some solutions, because we are still pretty far away on the lap times. At this moment I would say that we still have a lot of work to do. We had problems with the handling but now it’s okay and the grip is not a big problem… Everything looks to be okay, but on the track the lap times are not there. This morning we tried something completely crazy and it worked; this is Suzuka.”

Warwick Nowland, Yamaha Phase One Endurance: “It was good, but it’s just so hard here because I want to make the front all the time – in the first three at least – and we just don’t have a chance. We’re not going to get into Super Pole because there are so many fast bikes, so that’s horribly disappointing, but I think four hours into the race we’ll be a bit happier. We’re going forward all the time, and finding good tyres, so that’s good.“

James Hutchins, Kawasaki Diablo 666: “Qualifying has been tough. I’m a bit shell-shocked to realise quite how much machinery we’re up against. We haven’t really got the tyres here that we wanted to use, and it’s like fighting a never ending battle. We just want something nice to happen. I feel good about what we’ve done but there are still a few hurdles we’ve got to get over.“

SUZUKA 2005 ENTRY LIST

The yellow marked teams score World Championship points