Yoshimura Suzuki takes another great victory at Suzuka. The Japanese team already made history by stopping ten consecutive Honda victories at Suzuka when they won the 2007 edition. The Suzuki Yoshimura of Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki took victory with a one lap gap over the Kawasaki Trick Star Racing of Hiloyasu Izutsu, Shinya Takeishi and Ryuji Tsuruta and the Honda Dream RT Sakurai ridden by Takumi Takahashi and Chojun Kameya, who ended in third place after a fantastic end of the race. Another remarkable fact is the presence of a Kawasaki on the Suzuka 8 Hours podium. We need to get back to the 2000 edition to see a green machine on the podium, and back to 1993 for a Kawasaki victory at Suzuka. Yamaha Austria Racing Team is also making history by finishing just next to the podium, one lap behind the Honda Dream RT Sakurai. Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani scored the best ever result for YART at Suzuka and are extremely close of clinching the 2009 world title. There are 65 points to allocate on the next two rounds, the Bol d’Or and the 8 Hours of Doha, and YART leads runner-up Italians from RT Racing Team by 64 points on the provisional championship. The Suzuki Plot Faro Panthera of Osamu Deguchi and Koji Teramoto finished in fifth place, after racing for long in the leading trio. They lost a bit of ground towards the end of the race. Behind are the Kawasaki Beet Racing, the Honda Weider DD Boys with A-Style and Team Plus One & TSR. Starting from pole position, the Honda FCC TSR ends up in ninth place. In fact, the battle announced from the qualifications between the Suzuki Yoshimura with Jomo and the two top Hondas, FCC TSR and Musashi Harc-Pro, happened only for a few laps. As he was leading the race on the Honda FCC TSR, Kosuke Akiyoshi crashed in the second lap. On the Honda Musashi Harc-Pro, Tatsuya Yamaguchi crashed after half an hour. That gave some clear space for the Yoshimura Suzuki to take the leadership for the rest of the race. If the Honda FCC TSR managed to do a great come back up to the ninth place, the Honda Harc-Pro crashed again during the race. The Honda Teluru Honeybee completes the top 10, just ahead of two permanent teams who made their Japanese bet. The Yamaha BK Maco Moto Racing Team of Dani Ribalta and Jason Pridmore is in eleventh place, seven laps behind the winners, and just ahead of the Yamaha Phase One Endurance of Pedro Vallcaneras, Graeme Gowland and Damian Cudlin. Next round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship is the 12nd and 13rd of September in France, for the Bol d’Or at Magny-Cours. 2009 Suzuka 8 Hours results 1. Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo 12 (JPN/Suzuki/D. Sakai, K. Tokudome, N. Aoki ) 183 laps 2. Trick Star Racing 5 (JPN/Kawasaki/H. Izutsu, S. Takeishi, R.Tsuruta) 1 l 3. Honda Dream Sakurai 2 (JPN/Honda/T. Takahashi, C. Kameya) 1 l 4. Yamaha Austria 7 (AUT/Yamaha/I. Jerman, S. Martin, G. Giabbani) 2 l 5. Plot Faro Panthera 48 (JPN/Suzuki/O. Deguchi, K. Teramoto) 3 l 6. Beet Racing 9 (JPN/Kawasaki/O. Nishijima, K. Hasegawa, S. Karita) 4 l 7. Wider DD Boys with A-Style 44 (JPN/Honda/Y. Kodama, K. Tsuda) 4 l 8. Team Plus One & TSR 73 (JPN/Honda/S. Iwata,Y. Sugai, K. Watanabe) 4 l 9. FCC TSR Honda 1 (JPN/Honda/K. Akiyoshi, S. Ito, Y. Teshima) 5 l 10. Teluru Honeybee Racing 99 (JPN/Honda/H. Noda, T. Sekiguchi) 5 l 11. BK Maco Moto 14 (SVK/Yamaha/D. Ribalta, J. Pridmore) 7 l 12. Phase One Endurance 3 (GBR/Yamaha/ P. Vallcaneras, G. Gowland, D. Cudlin) 7 l 13. Team Etching Factory 15 (JPN.Yamaha/S. Takemi, Y. Usami, K. Adachi) 8 l 14. Honda Escargot & PGR 40 (JPN/Honda/N. Kuboyama, T. Nakatsuhara) 8 l 15. Honda Dream RT Wakayama 67 (JPN/Honda/ M. Ouchida, A. Yuzaki) 10 l More, from a press release issued by Honda: Weather: overcast with intermittent rain showers. Temperature: Air 29.5 degrees. Humidity: 66%. Crowd: 54,000. Valiant late charge carries Honda Dream RT Sakurai Team to third at Suzuka 8 Hours The Honda Dream RT Sakurai Team pairing of Takumi Takahashi and Chojun Kameya (CBR1000RR) battled their way to a hard fought third place at the 32nd running of the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance race. Takahashi and Kameya put in a tremendous late race charge to bring the CBR1000RR home one lap down on race winners Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki (Yoshimura Suzuki). Hard as the Sakurai riders pushed the CBR on the run in to the flag they could not close down the Kawasaki Trick Star Racing trio of Hiloyasu Izutsu, Shinya Takeishi and Ryuji Tsuruta in second place finishing just 40 seconds adrift. Honda HRC provided technical support for three 8 hour teams, the FCC TSR Honda CBR1000RR of Kosuke Akiyoshi, Shinichi Ito and Yoshiteru Konishi the Honda Musashi Harc-Pro CBR1000RR in the hands of Tatsuya Yamaguchi and Chojun Kameya and the Dream RT Sakurai Team, that has shared a long term partnership with HRC. Confidence was high as the leading Honda teams went to the Le Mans style start. FCC TSR Honda in pole position with Kosuke Akiyoshi as lead off rider, Tetsuya Yamaguchi alongside him on the Harc-Pro CBR1000RR, eventual race winners Yoshimura starting from third spot ahead of Takumi Takahashi aboard the Honda Dream RT Sakurai. Pre-race favourite Akiyoshi took the hole shot charging into the lead at turn one chased by the HarcPro CBR1000RR of Yamaguchi and Yoshimura of Takahashi. Akiyoshi held the lead across the line at the end of lap one but all hopes of victory were dashed halfway round lap two when he crashed at the Spoon Curve. Yamaguchi, HarcPro CBR1000RR inherited the lead fending off Sakai on the Yoshimura and the Sakurai CBR1000RR of Takahashi. Just as the lead group had settled into a fast rhythm Honda’s fortunes took another severe blow at the 30 minute mark when Yamaguchi crashed the HarcPro CBR1000RR. That left the Yoshimura GSX clear of the chasing pack lead by the Sakurai CBR1000RR from Plot Faro Panthera Suzuki holding third place. With the two leading CBR1000RR’s out of contention and relatively free of serious pressure in very trying dry wet weather conditions, which brought out the pace car on four occasions, the Yoshimura squad rode a text book race in difficult and demanding weather conditions to take 2009 Suzuka 8 Hours honours. They were 40 seconds clear of the field after one hour, doubled their lead in the second hour and at halfway almost one lap ahead of the Plot Faro Panthera team. Trick Star Kawasaki held third place just clear of the Sakurai CBR1000RR. The FCC TSR riders had fought through the back markers to climb to 26th place, HarcPro running down the order in 40th. The interest in the race now centered on the battle for the minor podium positions and it was the Trick Star team that held sway over the hard charging Honda Dream RT Sakurai men. Yamaha Austria claimed fourth place ahead of the fading Plot Faro Panthera Suzuki with the Beet Racing Kawasaki sixth. Honda equipped teams completed the top ten finishers. The Honda of the Wider DD Boys with A-Style team raced to a superb seventh place ahead of Team Plus One and TSR CBR1000RR and, amazingly Ito and Akiyoshi who brought the FCC TSR CBR home in ninth place with the Honey Bee Racing Team clinching tenth place. Honda rider and team manager quotes: Chojun Kameya. “I used a poultice and painkillers for my injured arm for the race. Today, I promised to the team to be within the top three places, and the team supported us to reach that goal and I have to thank them for what they did for us. At my very last run, I was able to bring the bike up to third place. This year, I suffered with injury and was change of rider line-up. Considering those change in the environment of the team, we did our best!” Takumi Takahashi: “When my turn came the rain became very hard. I paid every attention and tried my best not to fall in the wet conditions. Eventually, I was able to hand the machine to Kameya. Consecutively from last year, I was again able to be on the podium and it is all because of the aggressive challenge that Kameya made. I thank him a lot.” Takashi Yasuda: “Because of the unstable weather we had today it was very difficult to plan a strategy. When I was riding, I wanted to be ahead as much as possible but that led to my fall. I was not able to answer all the expectations that fans and the work that team did for us. I regret my mistake.” Tetsuya Yamaguchi: “At the beginning of the race, I saw Akiyoshi fall in front of me, so I reminded myself to be careful and brought my mind together once again. However, I was hit by the other machine from behind that I also fall. It was very unfortunate. Later, the teammate Yasuda also fall that I tried to take extra care of the machine to finish the race. Today was very tough day.” Yoshiteru Konishi: “I have participated in Suzuka 8 Hours several times, but never experienced the one like today. Both my teammates who fell, team mechanics who fixed the machine, the sponsors, fans who came today, by considering all the people who supported us, I tried to race faster as much as possible. I feel regret with our result but I thank all the fans who supported us.” Kosuke Akiyoshi: “When I fell on the second lap at the “S” curve, I turned (banked) my machine too much and the fairing touched the edge of the curve and the front end slid away. I thank the team staff who fixed the machine so quickly. With that I was able to bring the bike up to ninth position, which witnessed the potential of machine. If I have a chance next time, I want to challenge for the victory.” Shinichi Ito: “Not considering about Akiyoshi’s fall too much, I concentrated to race steadily and precisely, but not forgetting the challenging sprit. For half the race we had a terrible weather, but we aimed for the top 10, and we were able to race through everything till the checkered flag. Thank you all for the support.” Massa Fujii, FCC TSR Honda Team Manager “We had a real tough day and was a very dramatic race. Akiyoshi, Ito and the team staff never gave up and did really good job. Our mission is to continue participating in Suzuka 8 Hours. For next year, we will gather up team work like this year, and aim for the victory. We thank for your support!” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzui News Service: Yoshimura Suzuki took another great victory at this weekend’s Suzuka 8 hour race in Japan. The Suzuki Yoshimura team of Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki took victory with a one-lap gap over the Kawasaki Trick Star Racing of Hiloyasu Izutsu, Shinya Takeishi and Ryuji Tsuruta and the Honda Dream RT Sakurai ridden by Takumi Takahashi and Chojun Kameya, who ended in third place. The Suzuki Plot Faro Panthera of Osamu Deguchi and Koji Teramoto finished in fifth place, after competing in the top three for much of the race. 2009 SUZUKA 8 HOURS RESULTS: 1. Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo. JPN. Suzuki. D. Sakai, K. Tokudome, N. Aoki 2. Trick Star Racing. JPN. Kawasaki. H. Izutsu, S. Takeishi, R.Tsuruta 3. Honda Dream Sakurai. JPN. Honda. T. Takahashi, C. Kameya 4. Yamaha Austria. AUT. Yamaha. I. Jerman, S. Martin, G. Giabbani 5. Plot Faro Panthera. JPN. Suzuki. O. Deguchi, K. Teramoto 6. Beet Racing. JPN. Kawasaki. O. Nishijima, K. Hasegawa, S. Karita