Suzuki Dream Team at Assen? Suzuki lost out to Yamaha in the World Endurance Championship last year, but they’re back for 2005 with a significantly up-rated version of the GSX-R1000 and a dream-team rider pairing of Vincent Philippe and Keiichi Kitagawa. We spoke to Philippe and Kitagawa on the eve of the qualifying sessions for the Assen 500 first round of the championship. How much better is the K5 GSX-R, and how are the French and Japanese riders working together? Vincent Philippe first, on the new bike: “The biggest differences are in the engine; there’s more power and it’s easier to control. This year we have enough power; not too much, but enough. The bike is also shorter, but that’s not a good change for me. I had no confidence in the front end to start with, and we’ve only had three days of testing before this race. We will see how it goes tomorrow, when qualifying starts. I think it will be easier for me this year because I have a very good team mate; Keiichi and I are on the same level.” Keiichi Kitagawa, who celebrated his 39th birthday yesterday, is no stranger to endurance racing or Suzuki Castrol: “Doing two races with Suzuki Castrol last year made me think about doing the full World Endurance Championship, and here I am. The team is very French the conversations and the cooking, so you could say I am having difficulties, but having fun! It’s easy working with Vincent. We use nearly the same set-up for the bike; I am more experienced, so I am perhaps more relaxed about settings and can ride around the small differences between our set-up.” The pair has just one aim this year; to win the World Endurance Championship. They plan on doing that by winning every race, and for Kitagawa that will include a very personal challenge: “I really want to win Suzuka this year, and we can do it. It’s very important for both me and Suzuki to win; important for me because I have never won the 8 Hour, and important for Suzuki because it’s the 20th anniversary of the GSX-R this year.” Qualifying for the Assen 500 first round of the World Endurance Championship starts tomorrow, the 26th of March.