Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

For winning the 2001 WERA National Endurance Championship, Vesrah Suzuki’s Mark Junge was invited to Suzuki headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan for a celebration of the manufacturer’s 2001 Champions. Along with 23 of Suzuki’s World and National Champions, a large group of International media representatives attended the event, held January 19.

The trip for the Champions included a tour of Suzuki’s factory. According to Junge, Suzuki GSX-R1000s were being made on the assembly line that he inspected on Friday, January 18. “The bike goes from a bare frame to a complete motorcycle in just 15 minutes,” said Junge. “It was amazing. I mean, it went so fast that I missed the engine being put in and had to go back to see how they did it.”

Junge said that every Champion was allowed to bring their significant other to the celebration, and that a good time was had by all.

The hardest part of the entire experience for Junge was enduring the extremely long travel day getting home. Junge said that he and his wife Nancy left Hamamatsu by train around noon on Sunday, January 20 and arrived in Chicago around 4:00 p.m. Central Time on Sunday, January 20 with 18 hours of travel time in between. “We were served five meals along the way,” said Junge. “And they were all lunches!”