Carlos Checa stole the headlines in Saturday afternoon’s “Special Stage” qualifying session at Suzuka, with a lap of 2’07.587 on the Honda HRC 33. Behind the Honda is the Yamaha Racing 21 team of Nobuyuki Osaki and Katsuyuki Nakasuga (2’07.806) and the Suzuki Yoshimura with Jomo 34 team of Kosuke Akiyoshi and Yukio Kagayama (2’07.969).
This session like Superpole featured the two riders of the ten fastest teams in yesterday’s qualifying session who went head-to-head on one flying lap against the clock. The best times in the ‘Special Stage’ determined the order of the top ten machines on the starting grid for the ‘Coca Cola Zero’ Suzuka 8 Hours. This reduced the advantage of the other Honda HRC 11 of Ryuichi Kiyonari and James Toseland who qualified fastest in yesterday’s session but could only finish in fourth in today’s ‘Special Stage’ with a lap of 2’08.035.
Carlos Checa remained humble in victory:“This is a very special and important moment, but right now we must focus on the race tomorrow which will be something completely new for me. There are many things to learn ahead of tomorrow – the tires, the philosophy of the race track, the stopping areas. I hope tomorrow I can give my best without making any major errors”.
Today’s Special Stage allowed the Honda FCC TSR 778 of Yusuka Teshima and Shinichi Itoh to move up five places on the starting grid for tomorrow. Itoh’s flying lap of 2’08.449 was more than one second faster than the team’s best qualifying lap on Friday. FCC TSR 778, winner of the 2006 Suzuka 8 Hours, finds itself surrounded by a group of teams all looking for victory at Suzuka in 2007.
The ‘Coca Cola Zero’ Suzuka 8 Hours gets underway at 11:30 on Sunday.
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