Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127741
.ROAD RACE . WoridEndIiranCeCtlampionship~. By Johan Vandekerckhove Photos by Gold & Goose SUZUKA, JAPAN, JULY 30 ast year, quibblers might have called the RC45 victory at Suzuka a fluke; all during the Superb ike season, Aaron Slight and Doug Polen had been running behind their first international victory, and even after the surprising .result at Suzuka, things did not really get any better for the Honda boys. This year, things are different. Aaron Slight booked the first World Superbike victory a couple of months ago, and at Suzuka the Honda opposition got a beating they will not soon forget. Two out of the four official HRC teams lead the way from start to finish in a race run under the usual tropical-weather conditions, and one where very few factory bikes retired. Injuries following a high-speed crash R d4: S k 8H oun uzu a . our on Saturday morning did not stop Slight from notching his third Suzuka victory in a row, ensuring him and teammate Tadayuki Okada a very special place in the Honda racing annals. Honda teammates .shinichi Itoh and Satoshi Tsujimoto took second after having battled it out with the #1) bike for most of the race. Third place went to the Kawasaki duo of Akira Yanagawa and Katsuaki Fujiwara, followed closely by the two factory Yamahas and the factory Suzuki of Merkel and Goddard. Some other official riders failed to finjsh in the top three after crashes in the first hours of racing. Rjght from the start, Honda seemed determined to guide at least a handful of RC45s into the top-10 positions. In the first couple of laps, the field was headed by the three Hondas in the official colors and by the technically identical bike of the Cup Noodle team with Mike Hale and his Japanese teammate Takuma Aoki. The factory Yamahas anli Kawasakis also stayed wHhin striking distance in the first few laps. During the first hour, though, some of the leading melt got their first taste of . bad luck. First, Shinya Takeishi crashed one of the official HRC bikes. Then Keiichi KHagawa, teammate of pole-sitter Anthony Gobert, did the same with his Kawasaki. As a result of their off-road excursions, both teams lost their chances to finish in the top five. Things really looked bad for the Lucky Strike Kawasaki with Gobert and Kitagawa dropping all the way back to 57th place. After one hour of racing when most teams started to pit - the Aoki/Hale duo took over command for a short while, followed by Slight/ Okada, Itoh/Tsujimoto, Yanagawa/ Fujiwara (aboard the second Kawasaki), and the Yamahas of Fujiwara/ Yoshikawa and Nagai/Edwards. The first rider change did not temper Perhaps the single most prestIgious motorcycle race In the wor1d, the SUzuka 8-Hour gets under way. the enthusiasm of several top riders. Kagayama went down (together with Honda rider Osaka) and lost a lot of time bringing his bike back to the pit lane and waiting until his mechanics made the necessary repairs. Even more spectacular was Mike Hale's crash - the Texan having to dig his Honda from under the hay bales after his tumble. Fortunately Hale could continue his journey, albeit with some pain in his previously injured ribs. It would not be the end of the misery for this team: About an hour later, his teammate Aoki did his share of dust-biting and the Honda team had to resume the battle in 51st place. After three hours, six teams were still on the same lap: The factory Honda of