Suzuka 8 Hour Race 2009

MENU
HOME
YOUR HOST
RACING PEOPLE
MACAU GP
BIKE SET-UP
CJM RADIO
RACING LINKS
CONTACT
FORUM

FRONT PAGE ARCHIVES
WORLD ENDURANCE TEAMS
WORLD ENDURANCE ROUNDS

2011
MONZA

2009 SUZUKA 8 Hours - Japan 26th July

ENTRY LIST PDF (JAPANESE)

ENTRY LIST PDF (ENGLISH)

SUZUKA 8TAI RESULTS PAGE

SUZUKA 2009 RESULTS PDF

STANDINGS AFTER 4 ROUNDS PDF

RACE:
Yoshimura Suzuki takes another great victory at Suzuka. The Japanese team already made history by stopping ten consecutives Honda victories at Suzuka when they won the 2007 edition. The Suzuki Yoshimura of Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki took victory with a one lap gap over the Kawasaki Trick Star Racing of Hiloyasu Izutsu, Shinya Takeishi and Ryuji Tsuruta and the Honda Dream RT Sakurai ridden by Takumi Takahashi and Chojun Kameya, who ended in third place after a fantastic end of the race. Another remarkable fact is the presence of a Kawasaki on the Suzuka 8 Hours podium. We need to get back to the 2000 edition to see a green machine on the podium, and back to 1993 for a
Kawasaki victory at Suzuka. Yamaha Austria Racing Team is also making history by finishing just next to the podium, one lap behind the Honda Dream RT Sakurai. Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani scored the best ever result for YART at Suzuka and are extremely close of clinching the 2009 world title. There are 65 points to allocate on the next two rounds, the Bol d'Or and the 8 Hours of Doha, and YART leads runner-up Italians from RT Racing Team by 64 points on the provisional championship.

KAZUKI TOKUDOME SLOGGING THROUGH THE RAIN

The Suzuki Plot Faro Panthera of Osamu Deguchi and Koji Teramoto finished in fifth place, after racing for long in the leading trio. They lost a bit of ground towards the end of the race. Behind are the Kawasaki Beet Racing, the Honda Weider DD Boys with A-Style and Team Plus One & TSR. Starting from pole position, the Honda FCC TSR ends up in ninth place. In fact, the battle announced from the qualifications between the Suzuki Yoshimura with Jomo and the two top Hondas, FCC TSR and Musashi Harc-Pro, happened only for a few laps. As he was leading the race on the Honda FCC TSR, Kosuke Akiyoshi crashed in the second lap. On the Honda Musashi Harc-Pro, Tatsuya Yamaguchi crashed after half an hour. That gave some clear space for the Yoshimura Suzuki to take the leadership for the rest of the race. If the Honda FCC TSR managed to do a great come back up to the ninth place, the Honda Harc-Pro crashed again during the race. The Honda Teluru Honeybee completes the top 10, just ahead of two permanent teams who made their Japanese bet. The Yamaha BK Maco Moto Racing Team of Dani Ribalta and Jason Pridmore is in eleventh place, seven laps behind the winners, and just ahead of the Yamaha Phase One Endurance of Pedro Vallcaneras, Graeme Gowland and Damian Cudlin.

Next round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship is the 12nd and 13rd of September in France, for the Bol d'Or at Magny-Cours.

SPECIAL STAGE:
The Honda FCC TSR confirms its domination after the Special Stage with Kosuke Akiyochi and Shinichi Ito. During this Suzuka special type of Superpole, opened to two riders from the ten best teams after the qualifications, Akiyoshi has been very impressive on the track and took over the best time from Ito, who was the fastest performer with his smooth efficient riding style. Riding with Yusuke Teshima, Akiyoshi and Ito are seen as the favourites for victory. As during the qualifications, the battle for the best time involved Honda FCC TSR, the Honda Musashi Harc-Pro with Takashi Yasuda and Tatsuya Yamaguchi and the Suzuki Yoshimura, which takes the third place on the starting grid with Daisaku Sakai and Kasuki Tokudome. They will be riding tomorrow with former GP rider Nobuatsu Aoki. The Honda Dream RT Sakurai improved their position by two spots due to Chojun Kameya and the Honda Team Plus One & TSR moved from ninth to fifth place after the Special Stage. We will have to keep an eye on the track tomorrow on this CBR 1000 RR ridden by Satoru Iwata, Yoshiyuki Sugai and Kazuma Watanabe.

In fourteenth place on the starting grid, the Yamaha Austria Racing Team couldn’t enter the Special Stage. Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani were in tenth place on the Austrian Yamaha after the first qualifying session, but Gwen Giabbani, the fastest on the track, was unable to improve his best time for a lack of clear lap when he put a qualifying tyre. As the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship leader, YART has great hopes to enter the top 10 of this 32nd edition of Suzuka 8 Hours. Phase One Endurance will start on their Yamaha from the thirty-fourth position, with Damian Cudlin, Graeme Gowland and Pedro Vallcaneras. BK Maco Moto Racing will start from thirty-seventh position. Dani Ribalta and Jason Pridmore will have to race the Slovakian Yamaha without Victor Carrasco, who was found with a broken wrist after a crash during the free practice at Suzuka. These two permanent teams count on their experience to enter in the top 15 tomorrow during the race and come back from Suzuka with some useful points for the championship. The challenging exercise of the Special Stage has been held on a wet track and more thundershowers are expected tomorrow Sunday. The start of Suzuka 8 Hours is scheduled tomorrow at 11:30 am local time (GMT + 8).

Special Stage Results
1. FCC TSR Honda 1 (JPN/Honda/K. Akiyoshi, S. Ito) 2’07.692
2. Musashi RT Harc-Pro 634 (JPN/Honda/T. Yasuda, T. Yamaguchi) 2’08.130
3. Yoshimura Suzuki 12 (JPN/Suzuki/D. Sakai, K. Tokudome) 2’08.566
4. Honda Dream Sakurai 2 (JPN/Honda/T. Takahashi, C. Kameya) 2’10.998
5. Team Plus One & TSR 73 (JPN/Honda/S. Iwata,Y. Sugai) 2’11.169
6. Trick Star Racing 5 (JPN/Kawasaki/H. Izutsu, S. Takeishi) 2’11.319
7. Plot Faro Panthera 48 (JPN/Suzuki/O. Deguchi, K. Teramoto) 2’11.375
8. Teluru Honeybee Racing 99 (JPN/Honda/H. Noda, T. Sekiguchi) 2’11.897
9. Moto Map Supply 32 (JPN/Suzuki/ Y. Konno, D. Suzuki) 2’13.892
10. Team MII RHashimotogumi 77 (JPN/Suzuki/ T.Hamaguchi, K. Kanayama) 2’14.290

STOP PRESS:
In wet free practice Saturday, Yamaha Austria finished in 2nd place on their Michelin wets. Needless to say, the team are praying for a wet race.

SUZUKA OVERALL QUALIFYING:
Two Japanese Hondas killed the competition at the Suzuka 8 Hours qualifications. The Honda FCC TSR of Kosuke Akiyoshi, Shinichi Itoh and Yusuke Teshima got back into the lead with the best lap from Akiyoshi in 2'07.796, just ahead of the very fast Honda Musashi Harc-Pro of Takashi Yasuda, Tatsuya Yamaguchi and Yoshiteru Konishi in 2'07.866. The Suzuki Yoshimura of Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki is in third place of the qualifying session with a 2'08.550 best lap. Behind them are to be found a group of Japanese bikes in the 2'10 bracket. The Suzuki Plot Faro Panthera and the Kawasaki Trick Star Racing lead the Honda Sakurai and Teluru Honeybee Racing. If some of the teams managed to improve their lap times during the second qualifying session, this was not the case for Yamaha Austria Racing Team. In tenth place after the first qualifying session, the Austrian permanent team was expecting from Gwen Giabbani to do an even faster lap. "I did not have one clear lap with the qualifying tyre", said a disappointed Gwen Giabbani after the
afternoon session. YART will miss the "Special Stage", a Superpole opened to the best ten teams at the qualifications, and will start the race in fourteenth place with their best lap being 2'11.638. Phase One Endurance placed their Yamaha in the middle of the pack with Damian Cudlin, who did the best lap in 2'15.194. In the British permanent team, everybody took it easy and knows that the most important is the race on Sunday. At BK Maco Moto Racing, the riders Dani Ribalta and Jason Pridmore are more or less in the same pace, with a very small advantage from Pridmore, who signed a best lap in 2'15.523.

On the Yamaha Frontier Cleverwolf Racing, French rider Magali Langlois, the only women to race this 32nd edition of Suzuka 8 Hours, managed to get herself qualified by improving significantly her lap times during the second qualifying session. The "Special Stage" will take place tomorrow from 3:30 pm. The start of Suzuka 8 Hours will be on Sunday at 11:30 local time (GMT + 8). Fifty-eight teams will be on the track.

MAGALI TAKING IT TO JAPAN

OVERALL QUALIFYING TIMES PDF

SUZUKA FIRST QUALIFYING:
The Honda Musashi Harc-Pro took the best from the first qualifying session of Suzuka 8 Hours ahead of the Honda FCC TSR and the Suzuki Yoshimura. Despite pessimistic weather forecast, the first qualifications were held on a dry track. Yesterday, on a wet track, the same three Japanese teams were in a different order at the top of the free practice These three teams, the only this morning to complete a lap below 2'08, thus becoming the favorite for victory at the 32nd Suzuka 8 Hours, fourth round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship. In fourth position, the Suzuki Plot Faro Panthera recorded his best lap in 2’10.011, just ahead of the Trick Star Racing, the only Kawasaki ranked in the top ten. In 2’11 are then the Honda Teluru Honeybee Racing, Honda Dream Sakurai, Suzuki Ohnishi Heat Magic and the Suzuki Team MIIR. In tenth place of the first qualification, due to a great lap of Gwen Giabbani, the Yamaha Austria Racing Team enters in the top 10 and takes an option for the “Special Stage”, a kind of Superpole specific to Suzuka 8 Hours and open to the best ten teams after the qualifications. The “Special Stage” is open to two riders from each team and reallocates the positions on the final starting grid.

Another particularity from the Japanese classic: the qualifying time is the best individual lap from a rider, and not the average of the three riders of the team. The two others permanent teams at the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, Phase One Endurance and BK Maco Moto Racing Team, both on Yamaha, are in the middle of the pack. The
only women rider, the Frenchwoman Magali Langlois, who is discovering Suzuka, is outside of the qualifying time at the moment. The second qualifying session will take place this Friday afternoon. The “Special Stage” is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. The start of Suzuka 8 Hours will be done Sunday at 11:30 am local time (GMT + 8).

SUZUKA FIRST PRACTICE:
FCC TSR Honda (Kosuke Akiyochi, Shinichi Itoh and Yusuke Teshima) took the best from the free practice session of Suzuka 8 Hours, fourth round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship. On a wet Japanese track, after a thundershower in the middle of the day, 2006 Suzuka 8 Hours winner FCC TSR leads Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo (Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki) and Misashi RT Harc-Pro Honda (Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Yoshiteru Konishi and Takashi Yasuda). These three top Japanese teams are the only ones to ride below the 2'23 bar. Behind them, the Suzuki Ohnishi Heat Magic signed their best lap in 2'25.891.

The No.221 Team Frontier Cleverwolf Racing Yamaha that is fielding Frenchwoman Magali Langlois is in 44th place.

FREE PRACTICE TIMES PDF

Yamaha Austria Racing Team is the only permanent team to enter within the top ten during the free practice. The Yamaha of Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani took the seventh place in 2'26.465. The Yamaha Phase One Endurance of Pedro Vallcaneras, Damian Cudlin and Graeme Gowland is in twenty second position with 2'32.926. The Suzuka 8 Hours is not starting very well for BK Maco Moto Racing Team. Victor Carrasco crashed during the very first free practice session. The Slovak Yamaha was not too damaged but as a consequence the Spanish rider has a broken wrist and will have to leave the race in the hands of Dani Ribalta and Jason Pridmore. BK Maco Moto is in thirteenth position with a 2'35,102 lap. Serious action will start from tomorrow Friday at 10 am local time (GMT + 9) with the qualifying session but the weather forecast for Friday expects thunderstorms.
The Suzuka race track has changed since the 2008 edition. The main building, the pit lane and the start / finish tribune have been completely rebuilt, and more tribunes have been added all around the track. The track has been partly resurfaced, but his layout remains the same. The latest news concerning the Bol d'Or, the fifth and next round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, informs us that for financial reasons, Honda France has announced that they will not participate. The official Honda 111, who finished second at Le Mans with Steve Plater, Sébastien Charpentier and Matthieu Lagrive will not enter the Bol d'Or in September.

MAGALI LANGLOIS IN JAPAN

SUZUKA UPDATE:
The 8 Hours of Suzuka “Coca Cola Zero”, the fourth round of the 2009 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship will start from next Thursday with the free practice on the Japanese track. The qualifying session is scheduled for Friday. On Saturday will take place the “Special Stage”, a Superpole open to two riders of the ten best teams, and this will reallocate the first ten places on the final starting grid. The race will start Sunday at 11:30 AM (GMT + 9) and the race will finish at 7:30 PM, slightly after the sunset at Suzuka. 58 teams are expected to race. To compete against the best private and semi-official Japanese teams will be a hard challenge for the three permanent teams who will race at Suzuka this year. Championship leader Yamaha Austria Racing Team is one of the most experimented. The Austrian Yamaha team has regularly been in the top 15 since the 2004 8 Hours of Suzuka, except when they took the thirteenth place in 2007 after their bike faced some overheating problems. In eleventh place last year, YART aims to enter the top 10 this year to increase their gap in the championship. In the Yamaha Austria team there are three riders familiar with Suzuka, Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani. After some uncertainty due to financial reasons, Phase One Endurance will finally be at Suzuka. The British Yamaha team also has a long race history at Suzuka, although they have never been as successful as YART. However, Phase One Endurance has been several times in the top 20 since the 2004 8 Hours of Suzuka. Pedro Vallcaneras, twelfth last year with Folch Endurance, Damian Cudlin, thirteenth last year with Phase One Endurance and British Superbike rider Graeme Gowland will ride the Yamaha Phase One Endurance. BK Maco Moto Racing Team took seventeenth place last year at Suzuka. With Dani Ribalta, twelfth last year with Folch Endurance, Jason Pridmore and Victor Carrasco, the Slovakian Yamaha team hopes to score great points and make a significant move in the championship. Once announced at Suzuka, RMT 21 Racing won’t be at Suzuka this year after two bikes were destroyed during the practice and the race last month at Albacete. To achieve their goals, the three permanent teams will have to race against the best Japanese teams, in the likes of the Honda FCC TSR of Kosuke Akiyochi, Shinichi Itoh and Yusuke Teshima, the Suzuki Yoshimura of Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki and the Honda Dream Sakurai of Chojun Kameya and Australian rider Josh Brookes.

SUZUKA 2009:
The fourth round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship will take place on Sunday, the 26 July in Suzuka, Japan. Although the 8 Hours of Suzuka “Coca Cola Zero” are part of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship and are eagerly awaited by the local Japanese teams, it is not compulsory for the permanent teams to enter this particular race this season. Only the very best of them can hope to score a few points against very fast local teams who often have official support from the Japanese factories. Last year at Suzuka, the Yamaha Austria Racing Team finished in eleventh place ahead of Folch Endurance, Phase One Endurance and the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team. We will see once again on the Suzuka starting grid the Yamaha Austria Racing Team, the championship leader, with Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani; BK Maco Moto Racing Team on Yamaha with Jason Pridmore, Dani Ribalta and Victor Carrasco; the Honda RMT 21 Racing Team of Matti Seidel and Olivier Depoorter. Phase One Endurance , announced in Suzuka, will not finally travel to Japan for financial reasons. There will be no Superstock class this year at Suzuka: the Japanese round is not part of the FIM World Cup calendar, dedicated to this class.

In order to score some points and take advantage in the championship against other teams entered for the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, these permanent teams will have to battle against fifty-five Japanese teams. Although, due to the world economic crunch, the Japanese factories won’t enter their traditional official teams, the competition will still be very harsh between the semi-official teams, who often have some support from the factories. Contested on 14 June, the 300 km of Suzuka, also often called “the road to the 8 Hours” gave a fortaste of the favourites for victory at the end of July. The Honda FCC TSR of Kosuke Akiyoshi and Shinichi Ito, won the race ahead of Honda Musashi RT Arc Pro of Tatsuya Yamaguchi and Yoshiteru Konishi and the Suzuki Yoshimura of Daisaku Sakai and Kasuki Tokudome. These three teams will be present at Suzuka on 26 July.

It's about time - since racing in the big French endurance rounds for many years, finally the French ladies have a representative at Suzuka. Competing usually in the French Superbike Championship, Magali Langlois will do her first laps this year at Suzuka with the Japanese team Clever Wolf Racing on a Yamaha.

MAGALI LANGLOIS