Team Yoshimura Suzuki's Yukio Kagayama and Kousuke Akiyoshi raced their GSX-R1000 to victory in the Suzuka 8 Hour World Endurance third round in Japan - the team's first Suzuka endurance win for almost 30 years. It was back in 1978 at the inaugural Suzuka 8 Hour race that the team tasted victory aboard their GS1000R. Kagayama led from the start from Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari, Norick Abe (Yamaha) and Tady Okada (Honda), opening up a 15-second advantage by the one hour mark when Akiyoshi took over.
The duo continued to increase their advantage lap by lap to take victory with 216 laps.
World Championship leaders SERT with riders Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa were the second best of the permanent teams finishing in seventh position with Yoshimura's second team of Atsushi Watanabe and Daisaku Sakai finishing just off the rostrum in fourth.
Yukio Kagayama:"My strategy for my first stint was to pull away and I achieved this. My partner Akiyoshi is my long time friend and I know his potential very well. The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is awesome and the Bridgestone tyres were excellent. I would like to thank my staff and team, Yoshimura and Suzuki."
Yohei Kato - Yoshimura Suzuki Team Manager:"We believed Kagayama and Akiyoshi could win! They made very good lap times all through the 216 laps. I told Yukio before start that I wanted him to holeshot and the top position in a first lap - and he achieved it. I'm very happy and thanks to my staff and Suzuki plus all our sponsors. We finally beat a very strong HRC team. I want to dedicate this victory to my late grandfather, Pops Yoshimura."
Dominique Meliand - SERT Team Manager: "We ran a very consistent pace and kept strong top10 spot all through the race. The most important thing is we got strong points and finished second fastest in the permanent teams."
Vincent Philippe:"We only had two hours test at Suzuka before race but the track and temperature was quite different from today. Our pace was slower than we expected but we finished the race with only a small crash by Julian Da Costa without serious damage. Suzuka is very strange and difficult track but I love it - and I love the Suzuka 8 Hours."
Race Result:1 Kagayama/Akiyoshi (Yoshimura Suzuki) 216 Laps
2 Okada/ Checa (HRC) 216 Laps
3 Ito/ Teshima (Tsr-honda) 215 Laps
4 Watanabe/ Sakai (Yoshimura Suzuki) 215 Laps
5 Yamaguchi/ Camier (Moriwaki Honda) 212 Laps
6 Tokudome/ Kamata (Masked Rider Honda Dream) 211 Laps
7 Philippe/ Lagrive/ Da Costa (SERT Suzuki) 210 Laps
8 Iwata/ Sugai/ Platacis (F.C.C.TSR Honda) 210 Laps
9 Stauffer/ Abe (Yamaha) 210 Laps
10 Takeda/ Tsuda (Sakuria Honda) 209 Laps
Photos: Hiro Nakamura.
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