Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP .,~" .' Round 3: Sprite Suzuka 8 Hours .... a lso d rop ped a u t of th e race before it wa s over - not exactly the kind of performance one expects from the manufacturer that wo n the 1997 Wo rld Endurance Championship. By h ook or by croo k, every year one or two o d d b a ll e n tries s how up a nd so mehow end up raci ng the Suzu ka 8 Hours. This year's loopy entry was the "Su nd ance Dayt on a Wea po n," a comprehe ns iv el y updated version of th e bl a ck -and- gold , air -co ol ed Harle yDavidson fro m Tokyo tha t sho wed up annually for the AMA Bike Week races a t Day ton a Bea ch in th e ea rly 1990s, com plete with a team of 50 unifor med mechanics. Despite the protests of several teams, who cited the Daytona Weapon's po nderous pace as a hazard, the race organizers allowed this cross bet wee n a Sportster and a Britten to start the race in the X-Form ula class. The first Harlev endurance race r ever in the race was; natural oxymoron, an d it spent near ly half the race in the p its for repa irs and completed only 112 laps. By Tracy Hagen Photos by Mark Wernham SUZUKA CITY,JAPAN, JULY 26 f you thoug ht last yea r's Su zu ka 8 H ours vi ct ory by Sh in ic hi It o a n d Tohru Ukawa was a lu cky fluke mad e poss ible by the su dden appea rance of a typhoon after all practice sessions were run under dry conditions, you we ren 't alone. After all, no all-japanese team had ever won the 8 Hours before - except in 1982, wh en a summer typhoon caused the race to be called after six hours. This year the condit ions were exact ly the oppos ite fro m 1997, yet the race and the result were virtually identical. In d ry, nearly id eal wea ther, Ito and Ukawa put the ir Lucky Strike-sponsored Ho nda RC45 in the lea d du ring the first hour and they cont ro lled the race from then on - Iead ing 195 ou t of 212 laps. To top it off, Ito we nt qui ckest overall in qu alifying and in the Specia l Stage, the Suzuka 8 Hours versio n of Superpole. "Last year's race was wet and I am so happy tha t I wo n in d ry this year," Ito I RACE said. .. .. ~ I:- I~ ~ ~ 00 0\ 0\ ,..... C'J' ,..... ..... tJ) ~ eo ~ < 34 Ukawa echoed his sentiments " La s t ve a r when I wo n," he s a id , "someo ne sa id it's onlv a wi n in wet race, so I am hap py I won in dry this vear." • By winning aga in, Ito and Ukawa became the first all-japanese team to ever win a dry Suzu ka 8 Ho urs, the first team eve r to win the 8 Ho urs twice, and the first japanese riders to ever score two Suzuka 8 Hours victories. . And if you thought Alex Barros' second-place finish in last year's 8 Hours (h is second-ever race on a four-stroke motorcycle in his career) was abo a fluke - well , guess aga in. Th is year, Barros was reu nited wi th his Castrol Hon d a RC45 and , despite a heavy cras h in practice for bo th Barros and his partner Sete Gibernau, the pai r finished second - and on the lead lap. It was Giberna u's first race on a fou r-stroke motorcycle, an d he was the first Spani sh rider to ever compete in the Suz uka 8 Hou rs. After the japanese, Americans sit in second place for the most podium finishes in the history of the race. This year's top America n was for mer race winner Colin Edwards II, wh o was team ed wi th fellow 8 H o urs cha mpion Ta dy u k i Okada. The p air fin ish ed th ird on the secon d Cast ro l H on d a RC45, th e la st team on the lead lap. The Honda 1-2-3 sweep, the first since 1984 was complime nted by a Honda victory in the X-Formula support class by lurgen va n den Goor bergh an d jun Maeda, the pa ir ridi ng a CBR900RR. The ja panese X-Fo rm ula class is a so rt of anvthing-gocs Open class, b ut with a $25,000 claiming rule - and the japanese factones are barred from fielding factory teams. The only low point for Honda was th.ir their fou rth factory RC45 broke a chai n on la p 64 w hile in seco nd place. W nell the inciden t occu rred , the tea m ' was ta r away fro m th e pi ts , a nd the tossed chai n also caused .grea t da mage to the engine cases - th us Yuich i Ta keda an Daijiro Kato were forced to retire. Kawasaki had th ree fac torv tea ms t ha l al so pla ced well in the 'r esu lt s, d esp ite the forced withdrawal of their World Superbike riders Akira Yanagawa a nd Pierg io rg io Bont empi, due to the injuries they incurred at Laguna Seca. The top Kawa saki was fourth-placed Shinya Takeishi and Tamak i Seriza wa, one lap behind the lead ers. A lap behind Takeishi and Serizawa were Australians Martin Cragg ill and Damon Buckmaster. Craggill a nd Buckmaster, the factory Kawasaki su perbike riders in Australia, were co n tac te d six days before the 8 Hours an d told to ge t on the next airpla ne to j ap an to fill in for Yanagawa and Bontempi. . The third and final Kawasaki factory team wa s made up of Hitoyasu Izutsu and Britain's Ieil Hodgson, and the pair wo u nd up seventh with 209 la ps. The team s ta r te d th ird t hro ug h lzu ts us s tro ng show ing in the "Special Stage" bu t struggled ea rly on wi th a poo r tire selectio n and later had a long pit stop to replace a cracked exhaust pipe on their ZX-7RR. Yamaha 's collective factory effort was the third best of the day. The lead team of Noriy uk i Haga a nd Simon Crafa r qua lified seco nd, bu t u nfortunately Crafar fell during a wet pra ctice session on Friday morning and ban ged his shoulder badly, leaving him unable to muscle the bike through Suzuka Circuit's long , flowing corners. Then, in the race, their Marlboro-spo nsored YZF750 couldn't muscle itself dow n the straightaways when the engine's electronic "black box" went intermitten t. Haga had to cu t the course to retu rn to the pits for emergency repai rs, which cost them time and a one- lap penalty from the clerk of the course. TIley finished sixth. Haga' s older bro the r, Ken su ke, was on an ide nt ica l Marlbor o YZF750 with Wat uru Yos hik awa. Kensuke tangled wit h the Moriwak i Engi neering Honda VFRIOOOF on his 133rd la p, and both cras hed . The Yam ah a ca ug ht fire, and Kensuke aba ndoned th e bike and the race. The final factory Yama ha was spo n- Daljiro Kato (100) leads Tadayuk i Okada (4). Shinichi Ito and the res t of the pack in the opening laps of the Suzuka 8 Hours. sored bv Br itish Pet ro leum (BP ) and their Viitra line of motorcycle oil. Scott Russell was th e lea d rid er, par tnered with Norihiko Fujiwara, a 12-yea r veteran of racing Yama ha Su perbi kes and YZR500 Gra nd Prix bikes . Their race was a po tpourri of problems: poor tire selectio n, jack-s tand hard w are th at ca me loose, a handleba r that cracked . and an intermittent "black box" failure identical to that suffered by Haga and Crafar. Having run as high as fourth late in the race, Russell an d Fujiwara drop ped back to eighth with engine problems. For Suz uki , w hich hasn't been on a Su zuk a 8 'lours podium in 10 years, a glimmer of hope emerged in qualifying and during the first hour of the race. Akira Ryo stayed with the leading, allpowerful Ho ndas in the first ho ur, and even snea ked a head at one point briefly. Runn ing a secure second at on ethird d istan ce, Ryo stayed ou t on course too long and ran ou t of gas . Ryo a nd partner Keiichi Kitagawa eventua lly finished 11th. The other factory Suzuki was piloted by Nobuatsu Aoki a nd Kat su ak i Fu jiwa ra, an d they fared rather poorly. The pair never found a setu p that worked to their liking, and they dropped out of the race when the "black box" went intermitt en t, ca usi ng th eir GSXR750 to act like it was always running out of gas. The Yosh imura Suzuki failed to finish d u e to early engine trouble. The four teams with p ri va tel y entered Su z ukis No rmally, the 20-m inut e Sunday mo rning warm up practice is just enough time for each rid er to scrub a cou ple of sets of ra ce tires a nd for the team to rehearse p it-stop procedures. But with rain falling throughout qualifying day, and only a short 20-mi nute practice on Special Stage day, the Sunday morning practice was precious. Ito and Ukawa indicated their readiness to race , clocking a 210.943. Barros and Gibernau were second quickest at 2:11.666, beating Haga and Crafar's time of 2:11.832. Edwards and Okada wer e the best of the four teams in th e 2:12 range, which included Takeishi and Serizawa, Kitagawa an d Ryo, and Takeda and Kato. The Le Mans-stvle sta rt was mastered best by lzutsu, w'ho put his Kawasaki into turn one a head of Kat e 's Hond a, Rvos Suzuki, an d Ito's Hon d a . Rvo swep t in to the lead in the fast rig ht-hand co rn e rs from th e Ha irp in to S poo n Cu rve, and later Kato passed both bikes on th e ba ck s tra ig h t to take th e lead . O ka da al so mov ed u p to d ro p Ito to fifth. CraggiIl was bac k in ni nt h, Russell's tea mma te Fujiwara was 12th, and Crafar was a deep 19th, electing to try the Le Mans sta rt even tho ugh his ankle was still both ering him . Kato held the lead for the next two laps, while Okada met hodically moved forwa rd , overpowering his rivals .on the straig htaw ays . Okada's third lap was the fastest of all the riders' laps of the day, a 2:11.485. That drive carried Okada into the lead in turn one on the four th lap. Katu duplica ted Okada's pass perfectlyon the following lap to retake the lead. Ito was now deep in the throttle as well, rapidly joining up with Kato and Okada. Ito d rafted by Kato on the back straig h t, and bro ug ht wi t h him the resurge nt Ry o . It o th e n ca me up on Okada going in to the Cas io Tria ng le chicane, and Okad a ga ve Ito enough space to take the lead . Ryo followed Ito's. every move and passed Oka da as well. Ito stayed pu t in the lead for the next two rounds, while Ryo and Okada kept the pr essure on each other. On the sev-. en th lap, head ing into the chicane, Ryo m ad e a bo ld la te -b rakin g m ov e a nd grabbed the lead . Ryo held the lead over Okad a b y 0.055 seco n ds w h en th ey crossed the line, and for the first time in man y years a Suz uki had led a lap in the Suzuka 8 Hours. But soon af ter Ryo a nd O kad a had tripped th e tim in g lig h ts, Okad a was

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