Suzuka 8 Hours, the 31st of July Six permanent teams are challenging the Japanese racers Third round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, the Suzuka 8 Hours will take place on Sunday 31st July, in Japan. This year, six of the permanent teams will go there to challenge the best Japanese teams on their home ground. Vincent Philippe, Daisaku Sakai and Anthony Delhalle will race on the official Suzuki, 2010 Endurance World Champion and winner of the Bol d’Or at the opening of the season. The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, who is currently leading the provisional championship classification by two points, will have to hold back the BMW Motorrad France 99. With its usual trio, Sébastien Gimbert, Erwan Nigon and Damian Cudlin, the BMW Motorrad France 99, who recently won the 8 Hours of Albacete, aims at making a difference with the talent of their riders and the power of the S1000RR to come back with a championship lead on this very long (5 821 m) and fast Suzuka race track. Monster Yamaha YART also hopes for a great Suzuka performance to catch up with the leaders after they retired during the Bol d’Or. For Suzuka, the Austrian official team strengthen itself with the support of Katsuyuki Nakasuga, 2008 and 2009 Japanese Superbike champion, and currently in third place from the 2011 championship just behind FCC TSR Honda rider Kosuke Akiyoshi and 2010 Suzuka 8 Hours winner and Honda Musashi RT Harc Pro rider Takumi Takahashi. Katsuyuki Nakasuga will be a great support to Igor Jerman and Gwen Giabbani on the Monster Yamaha YART. The Bolliger Team Switzerland is also doing some temporary Japanese recruitment: on the Swiss Kawasaki, Horst Saiger and Roman Stamm will pair with Isami Higashimura. Third from the provisional world championship, the team Yamaha Racing France GMT 94 Ipone will enter with their usual riders David Checa, Kenny Foray and Matthieu Lagrive, as the British from Honda TT Legends will enter their CBR1000RR with John McGuinness, Keith Amor and Cameron Donald in place of Steve Plater injured. These six teams will have to target the maximum of points for the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, alongside the best Japanese teams who are only racing for a victory at this all-time great Japanese classic. Amongst the favourites are the Honda Musashi RT Harc Pro, 2010 winner, who is entering with Takumi Takahashi, Makoto Tamada and Tadayuki Okada; there are also the Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team with Yukio Kagayama, Nobuatsu Aoki and Australian rider Josh Waters, the FCC TSR Honda who is entering with some Suzuka 8 Hours podium-makers, Kosuke Akiyoshi, Shinichi Itoh and Ryuichi Kiyonari, and the Honda Dream RT Sakurai with two Australian riders Jamie Stauffer and Wayne Maxwell.