30th ‘Coca Cola Zero Suzuka 8 Hours’ Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo 34 dominates Thursday’s free testing The Suzuki Yoshimura with Jomo 34 posted the fastest time in Thursday’s free tests at Suzuka with a lap of 2:08.585, a mark set by rider Kosuka Akiyoshi. His Suzuki was the only machine to have completed the 5,821 meter Japanese circuit under the 2:09 barrier. The next best time came from Katsuyuki Nakasuga on the Yamaha Racing 21 with 2:09.607, just ahead of the Honda HRC 33 who registered 2:09.948 thanks to its star rider Carlos Checa. Competing against the factory machines in the JSB (Open) category and taking part outside of the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship, the Japanese Honda FCC TSR, victorious last year at Suzuka and this year registered in the Superbike class, was placed 10th and completed the best performance of the class with a time of 2:11.161. The fastest permanent team was FCC TSR Eurosport Benelux with a lap of 2:13.391. In partnership with a Japanese team since Albacete, the Dutch team has also signed up two Japanese riders for the Suzuka 8 Hours. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team was placed 19th fastest in these free tests with a best lap of 2:13.681. Just behind SERT was Yamaha Austria Racing Team who registered a best of 2:15.667, followed closely by Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland in 2:16.728. The line-up for Sunday’s starting grid will be decided on Friday by the best times registered by each team in the qualifying session. On Saturday, the Superpole session will decide in which order the fastest ten teams will line-up. The ‘Coca Cola Zero’ Suzuka 8 Hours begins at 11:30 on Sunday at Suzuka. Provisional Thursday Practice Results: 1. Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo 34 (Yukio Kagayama/Kosuke Akiyoshi), Suz GSX-R1000, 2:08.585 2. Yamaha Racing 21 (Nobuyuki Osaki/Katsuyuki Nakasuga), Yam YZF-R1, 2:09.607 3. Team HRC 33 (Tadayuki Okada/Carlos Checa), Hon CBR1000RR, 2:09.948 4. Yamaha Racing 81 (Jamie Stauffer/Norick Abe), Yam YZF-R1, 2:10.122 5. Kyubo.com Team HARC-PRO (Takashi Yasuda/Yoshiteru Konishi), Hon CBR1000RR, 2:10.318 6. Team HRC 11 (Ryuichi Kiyonari/James Toseland), Hon CBR1000RR, 2:10.331 7. Dream RT (Kazuki Tokudome/Gaku Kamada), Hon CBR1000RR, 2:10.577 8. Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo 12 (Akira Watanabe/Daisaku Sakai), Suz GSX-R1000, 2:10.698 9. Team Sakurai Honda 2 (Chojun Kameya/Russell Holland), Hon CBR1000RR, 2:11.122 10. F.C.C. TSR ZIP-FM Racing Team (Shinichi Ito/Y. Techima), Hon CBR1000RR, 2:11.161 11. Moriwaki Motul Racing (Tatsuya Yamaguchi/Leom Camier), Hon CBR1000RR, 2:11.300 19. Castrol Suzuki 1 (Vincent Phillipe/Mathieu Lagrive/Julian Da Costa), Suz GSX-R1000, 2:13.681 22. WIN-CHU Suzuki Racing Team (Daigoro Suzuki/Toshiyuki Arakaki), Suz GSX-R1000, 2:14.150 23. Marumae 6264 Racing Supply (Akira Tamitsuji/Koji Honda), Suz GSX-R1000, 2:14.201 36. Yamaha Austria Racing Team 7 (Igor Jerman/Damian Cudlin/Steve Martin), Yam YZF-R1, 2:15.667 49. Phase One (Warwick Nowland/Glen Richards/Stefan Nebel), Yam YZF-R1, 2:16.872 63. Diablo 666 Bollinger (James Hutchins/Alexander Cudlin/Gary Mason), Kaw ZX-10R, 2:18.342 68. RMT #21 Racing (Heidger Frank, Henrik Meyer, Jakub Smrz), Hon CBR1000RR, 2:19.029 75. Team Suzuki Sweden (Tobias Andersson/Paul Young/Mikael Nilsson), Suz GSX-R1000, 2:21.496 76. Amadues X-one (Riccardo Ricci/Paolo Tessari/Will Gruy), Yam YZF-R1, 2:21.668