Three European teams to challenge the Japanese armada The Suzuka 8 Hours, third round of the 2010 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship mark the 2010 midseason. This round does not count for the FIM Superstock World Cup and is not compulsory for the teams entered in the Qtel FIM World Championship. However, three of the permanent teams targeting the 2010 crown will enter the race, alongside 48 Japanese teams. Bolliger Switzerland will definitely try to keep their championship’s current leadership. The Swiss Kawasaki with Horst Saiger, Patric Muff and Roman Stamm has a certain experience of the Japanese classic event and scored their best result in 2007 with a fifth place (in SBK class). Yamaha Austria Racing Team, 2009 Qtel FIM Endurance World Champion, is the most experienced European team in Suzuka this year. Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani will try to take back the championship lead as they are only two points behind Bolliger Switzerland. YART finished fourth of the 2009 Suzuka 8 Hours and also finished eighth of the 2010 300 km of Suzuka last June, just behind the Yamaha France GMT 94 Ipone. In Suzuka, the official French Yamaha will try to score big points after two difficult races in Le Mans (4th place) and in Albacete (retired after a crash). David Checa and Kenny Foray will team with Damian Cudlin, since Gregorio Lavilla, the third official rider, is still recovering from a broken pelvis following his Spanish crash. Damian Cudlin is an Endurance regular rider and was seen this year on the Honda BMP Elf 99, but in the end the Belgian Honda team did not enter the Suzuka 8 Hours due to financial reasons. Another big absence in Suzuka is the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, which is now under great pressure to do their best at the Bol d’Or and the 8 Hours of Doha to clinch the 2010 title. These three permanent teams will have to battle against the highly prepared Japanese competition, which benefits from the support of the official factories and are entering with Moto2, World Superbike, Australian SBK and British SBK riders. Amongst the favourites for victory are the Yoshimura Suzuki (Yukio Kagayama, Daisaku Sakai, Nobuatsu Aoki), winners of the 2009 8 Hours and the 2010 300 km of Suzuka, FCC TSR Honda (Kosuke Akiyoshi, Jonathan Rea, Yuki Takahashi), 3rd in the 300 km in June, Honda Dream Sakurai (Chojun Kameya, Wayne Maxwell), 3rd in the 2009 8 Hours, but also the Honda Keihin Kohara (Shinichi Itoh, Makoto Tamada). The first practice will start in Suzuka on Friday 23 July and the start of the race is scheduled for Sunday 25 July at 11:30 local time (GMT + 9).