30th ‘Coca Cola Zero Suzuka 8 Hours’ HRC takes control in qualifiers The Honda HRC 11 of Ryuichi Kiyonari and James Toseland took the plaudits in Friday’s qualifying sessions for the ‘Coca Cola Zero’ Suzuka 8 Hours. In the second round of qualifying James Toseland recorded a lap of 2:08.344, just ahead of the other Honda HRC 33 of Tadayuki Okada and Carlos Checa who, thanks to Okada, recorded a best of 2:08.352. The official Honda team took control after Thursday’s free testing sessions had been dominated by the Suzuki Yoshimura 34 of Yukio Kagayama and Kosuke Akiyoshi, who finished third quickest after today’s qualifying rounds with a best time of 2:08.735, courtesy of Kagayama. The Yamaha Racing 21 and Honda Kyubo Harc-Po teams complete the make-up of the top five teams following the end of qualifying. The ten fastest teams will now compete in the Superpole competition on Saturday afternoon to decide the final make-up of the top ten places on the starting grid. The best machine in the Superbike class (which is competing for points in the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship) is the Honda FCC TSR 778 of Yusuka Teshima and Sinichi Itoh who qualified in 10th at Suzuka today. The second best Superbike machine was the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team who took 15th place in qualifying with a time of 2:11.572, ahead of Honda FCC TSR Eurosport Benelux which, thanks to its two Japanese riders, qualified in 19th. Beyond 20th position, several permanent teams are bunched together. With a time of 2:14 were Yamaha Austria Racing Team, Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland, Endurance Moto 38, and Yamaha Phase One Endurance who leap-frogged the Kawasakis of Qatar Endurance Racing Team, RMT 21, Diablo 666 Bolliger and LTG 57. For other teams who are new to Suzuka this year, the head-to-head battle with the highly-motivated Japanese riders, a fast circuit, and the extreme local climate (over 30 degrees) has not made things any easier. The full results from today’s qualifying session are available on the Championship website news section. The Superpole qualifying session will be disputed tomorrow afternoon, beginning at 15:30. 2007 QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship Series Coca-Cola Zero Suzuka 8 Hours Suzuka, Japan July 27, 2007 Provisional Qualifying Results: 1. Team HRC 11 (Ryuichi Kiyonari/James Tosleand), Hon CBR1000RR, JSB, 2:08.344 2. Team HRC 33 (Tadyuki Okada/Carlos Checa/Jonathan Rea), Hon CBR1000RR, JSB, 2:08.352 3. Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo 34 (Yukio Kagayama/Kosuke Akiyoshi), Suz GSX-R1000, JSB, 2:08.735 4. Yamaha Racing 21 (Nobuyuki Osaki/Katsuyuki Nakasuga/W. Yoshikawa), Yam YZF-R1, JSB, 2:08.904 5. Kyubo.com Team HARC-PRO (Yoshiteru Konishi/Takashi Yasuda), Hon CBR1000RR, JSB, 2:09.235 6. Yamaha Racing 81 (Jamie Stauffer/Norick Abe), Yam YZF-R1, JSB, 2:09.292 7. Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo 12 (Atsushi Watanabe/Daisaku Sakai/Nobuatsu Aoki), Suz GSX-R1000, JSB, 2:09.535 8. Masked Rider DEN-O Honda Dream RT (Kazuki Tokudome/Gaku Kamada), Hon CBR1000RR, JSB, 2:09.550 9. Team Sakurai Honda 2 (Chojun Kameya/Russell Holland), Hon CBR1000RR, JSB, 2:09.585 10. F.C.C. TSR ZIP-FM Racing Team (Y. Teshima/Shinichi Ito), Hon CBR1000RR, SBK, 2:09.753 11. Moriwaki Motul Racing (Tatsuya Yamaguchi/Leon Camier/Shogo Moriwaki), Hon CBR1000RR, JSB, 2:10.212 15. Castrol Suzuki 1 (Vincent Philippe/Matthieu Lagrive/Julien Da Costa), Suz GSX-R1000, SBK, 2:11.572 21. Marumae 6264 Racing Supply (Akira Tamitsuji/Koji Honda), Suz GSX-R1000, JSB, 2:12.897 24. WIN-CHU Suzuki Racing Team (Daigoro Suzuki/Toshiyuki Arakaki/E. Samura), Suz GSX-R1000, JSB, 2:13.367 30. Yamaha Austria Racing Team (Igor Jerman/Damian Cudlin/Steve Martin), Yam YZF-R1, SBK, 2:14.056 34. Phase One Endurance (Warwick Nowland/Glen Richards/Stefan Nebel), Yam YZF-R1, SBK, 2:14.296 38. Bolliger Team Switzerland (David Morillon/Paric Muff/Horst Saiger), Kaw ZX-10R, SBK, 2:14.514 43. Endurance Moto 38 (Erwan Nigon/Julien Millet/Joao Contente Fernandes), Yam YZF-R1, SPP, 2:14.963 60. Diablo 666 Bolliger (James Hutchins/Alexander Cudlin/Gary Mason), Kaw ZX-10R, SBK, 2:16.511 72. Team Suzuki Sweden (Tobias Andersson/Paul Young/Mikael Nilsson), Suz GSX-R1000, SBK, 2:18.430 76. Amadeus X-one (Riccardo Ricci/Paolo Tessari/Will Gruy), Yam YZF-R1, SPP, 2:20.299 More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office: Team Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo riders Yukio Kagayama and Kousuke Akiyoshi put their GSX-R1000 into provisional third position for Sunday’s World Endurance third round at Suzuka in Japan. With temperatures reaching 50 degrees, qualifying was split into two groups to accommodate the 82 teams. In the first session Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo rider Atsushi Watanabe recorded the second fastest time of 2:09.535 whilst Kagayama dominated the second with a time of 2:08.735. But in the afternoon qualifying session Honda’s James Toseland took the top spot with a 2:08.344 just ahead of HRC team mate Carlos Checa. World Championship leaders Suzuki Endurance Racing Team were the fastest permanent team with a lap of 2:11.572. Tomorrow sees a Superpole session to decide the top 10 teams before the race begins at 11:30 on Sunday.