IN
THE
WIND
P50
YAMAHA FACTORY RACING TAKES
FOURTH STRAIGHT SUZUKA 8-HOURS WIN
Y
amaha Factory Racing
(Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex
Lowes and Michael van der
Mark) took a fourth straight win
in the Suzuka 8 Hours. The
Yamaha entrant came home
ahead of Red Bull Honda with
Japan Post (Takumi Takahashi,
Takaaki Nakagami and Patrick
Jacobsen) and pole sitters Team
Green Kawasaki (Jonathan
Rea, Leon Haslam and Kazuma
Watanabe).
In the Endurance World
Championship, the F.C.C. TSR
Honda France (Japanese team
partnered with Honda France)
team became the first Japanese
team to take the outright honors
in the championship's history,
finishing the race in fifth.
Rea and Team Green had
taken the lead in the early
stages but was caught out by
a rain shower and crashed at
low speed while on slick tires.
He made it back to the pits for
repairs but Team Green would
finish a lap down.
The race distilled to a battle
between Yamaha Factory Rac-
ing and Red Bull Honda with
Japan Post, with the current 8
Hours Champions stretching
their advantage to 30.9 seconds
at the flag.
Suzuki S-Pulse Dream Racing
IAI (Hideyuki Ogata, Tom Bride-
well and Kasuki Watanabe) ran
a flawless race to finish fourth,
with F.C.C. TSR Honda France
(Freddy Foray, Alan Techer and
Josh Hook) rounding out the top
five.
F.C.C. TSR Honda France
thus takes the 2017/2018 FIM
Endurance World Championship
with a seven-point advantage
over former world champions
GMT94 Yamaha's David Checa,
Niccolò Canepa and Mike Di
Meglio, who finished the Suzuka
race in sixth.
The top 10 was rounded out
by Honda Dream Asia Racing,
KYB Moriwaki Motul Racing,
Honda Endurance Racing and
Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing.
Team Kagayama U.S.A. with
American Moto2 racer Joe
Roberts and teammates Yukio
Kagayama and Naomichi Uramo-
to finished 11th. CN
Despite some serious
competition from
Kawasaki, the Yamaha
Factory Racing Team
prevailed yet again in
the Suzuka 8 Hours.
