Yoshimura Suzuki's Atsushi Watanabe raced the brand new GSX-R1000K7 to victory in the opening round of the Japanese Superbike Championship at Twinring-Motegi at the weekend after starting from sixth position on the grid. Following a wet Saturday qualifying session, the Suzuki rider made his challenge at the half-way stage of the dry 20-lap race, catching up to leaders and taking to the front with five laps remaining after carving past the leading trio in as many laps.
Said Watanabe: "The all-new 2007 GSX-R1000 is awesome but the massive amount of power made it difficult to set up the chassis for the race on Saturday in the wet, so I asked my team staff to make it easier to ride. I didn't have a good start but I had a lot of confidence in the bike and my team and am very happy with the result for both Yoshimura Suzuki and Bridgestone."
Superbike Results:1: Atsushi Watanabe (Yoshimura Suzuki)
2: Tatsuya Yamaguchi (Moriwaki Honda)
3: Shogo Moriwaki (Moriwaki Honda)
4: Akira Yanagawa (Team Green Kawasaki)
5: Norick Abe (Yamaha)
6: Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha)
7: Chojun Kameya (Sakurai Honda)
8: Kousuke Akiyoshi (WINs Suzuki)
9: Daisaku Saka (Yoshimura Suzuki)
10: Takashi Yasuda (Harc Honda)
Related Linkswww.suzuki-racing.com
