FIM ENDURANCE:

Yoshimura Suzuki takes another great victory at Suzuka. The Japanese team already made history by stopping ten consecutives 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.