30th ‘Coca Cola Zero Suzuka 8 Hours’ An imposing line-up of teams set to start 86 teams will take to the track for the ‘Coca Cola Zero Suzuka 8 Hours’, the third race in the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship series, which kicks off in Japan on 29th July. 18 permanent teams will be on the start line and, as every year, the rest of the racers will be made up of official, semi-official and privateer Japanese teams. The official Honda team, HRC, will line-up with two CBR 1000RR machines. One will be ridden by two stars of world motorcycle racing – Ryuichi Kiyonari, current leader of the British Superbike Championship, and James Toseland, leader of the World Superbike Championship. Tadayuki Okada will be the replacement rider. On the second HRC Honda, Britain’s Jonathan Rea, currently lying second in the British Superbike Championship, will partner MotoGP star Carlos Checa. These two machines are the undoubted favourites to win in Japan. Ryuichi Kiyonari and Jonathan Rea, team-mates in the HM Plant British Superbike team, were the winners of the ‘Suzuka 300km’ race back on 10th June. In the official Suzuki colours is the French permanent team Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, current leader of the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship. In addition Suzuka will also play host to two Yoshimura Jomo GSX-R 1000s. The first will be in the hands of two riders from Japanese Superbikes – Atsushi Watanabe and Daisaku Sakai – with Nobuatsu Aoki in reserve. World Superbike rider Yukio Kagayama and Kohsuke Akiyoshi will be on board the other Yoshimura Suzuki. Two official Japanese motorcycles have been entered by Yamaha Racing. One will be ridden by Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Nobuyuki Ohsaki, and the other by Norifumi Abe and Jamie Stauffer, the 2006 Australian Superbike and Supersport Champion. Among the most experimental permanent teams, the Yamaha colours will be defended by Yamaha Austria Racing Team, Yamaha Phase One Endurance and Endurance Moto 38. The LTG 57 Team, also on Yamaha, will be looking to defend their lead in the Superstock Championship against the Suzukis of the ABG Performance and Endurance Moto 45 teams. There will be no official Kawasaki teams on the start line at Suzuka. Four permanent teams, however, will be riding Kawasaki ZX10-Rs. Qatar Endurance Racing Team have recruited two Japanese riders, Shohei Karita and Naoki Shimizu, to help out Mashel Al-Naimi. While Bolliger Switzerland, Diablo 666 Bolliger and Raffin Motos will also be using Kawasakis. The official Japanese teams will be racing at Suzuka in the JSB category (Japanese Superbikes) and not racing for points in the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship. The only exception is the Honda FCC TSR 778 of Takeshi Tsujimura and Shinichi Itoh, winners of the 2006 ‘Suzuka 8 Hours’, who are entered into the Superbike category and will race shoulder to shoulder with the permanent teams. Thirty points are on offer for the winners of the ‘Suzuka 8 Hours’ in Superbike, Superproduction and Superstock categories.