The Yoshimura Suzuki team of Daisaku Sakai and Nobuatsu Aoki took victory in the drama-packed Suzuki 300 Endurance race over the weekend, with Australian Wayne Maxwell’s Honda Dream RT team fifth in a race that featured torrential rain showers, and ever-changing track conditions.
The start of the race was delayed, but with the weather refusing to clear the decision was made to run and the teams faced 300 kilometres of wet and dry racing with totally different conditions on the east and west sides of the famous Suzuka International 5.821km track.
FCC TSR Honda rider Kosuke Akiyoshi led the early part of the race until Honda Dream RT rider Chojun Kameya, Maxwell’s teammate, took the initiative. Kameya was soon suffering with grip issues due to the wrong tyre choice and the Yoshimura Suzuki pairing made their way carefully to the front on lap 28 and held it to the flag.
Behind the Yoshimura pairing on the podium came MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO riders Takumi Takahashi and Takaaki Nakagami, with Akiyoshi rounding out the podium.
Kameya and Maxwell scored a solid fifth overall for the event in the ASBK contender’s maiden outing at Suzuki in preparation for next month’s Suzuka 8-Hour event.
TOP 10 RESULTS:
1. Yoshimura Suzuki with JOMO – Daisaku Sakai and Nobuatsu Aoki (Suzuki GSX-R1000)
2. MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO – Takumi Takahashi and Takaaki Nakagami (Honda CBR1000RR)
3. F.C.C. TSR Honda – Kosuke Akiyoshi (Honda CBR1000RR)
4. Taira Racing – Yuichi Takeda (Yamaha YZF-R1)
5. Honda DREAM RT Sakurai Honda – Chojun Kameya and Wayne Maxwell (Honda CBR1000RR)
6. TRICK BSTAR RACING – Shinya Takeishi and Yoshihiro Konno (Kawasaki ZX10R)
7. YAMAHA FRANCE-GMT94-IPONE – David Checa (Yamaha YZF-R1)
8. YAMAHA AUSTRIA RACING TEAM – Igor German (Yamaha YZF-R1)
9. Honey Bee Racing – Hiroki Noda and Taro Sekiguchi (Honda CBR1000RR)
10. Team Sugai Plus One – Yoshiyuki Sugai (Honda CBR1000RR)