Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP ca me T a'k eis h i, clo~ el y" f~ll owed b y Yo shika w a. Ru ssell was seven th, a lap d o wn but ri ght b eh ind U k a wa a n d matching his pace perfectly. Barros got in to a quick rh ythm soone r th an Haga did, and increased the interva l from 2.8 to 4.0 seco nds in five laps. Then Haga responded, and by lap 93 the interval was d own to a tenth of a sec ond . From his first s tin t, it was a good guess that H aga was to try Barros in the esses and he did, in th e most dramatic move of th e race. Instead of attacking the left side in the second left comer, as he had successfully done twice earlier in his first stint, Haga went for Barros' right side in the second right-hand corner. At the apex, Haga and Barros were even - a n d directly be hi nd side-by-side backmarkers Tweed ie-Dee and Tweedle-Dum . Barros blew p ast Dee on th e inside, but tha t caused Barros to run wi de o n th e exi t of th e next left-hand curve. H aga blew between Dee and Dum and went to th e inside of Barros. Barros and Haga never opened a gap on each other the res t of th e la p . When th ey crossed the finish line at the completion of lap 95, the official timing and scoring interval between them was 0.000 seco nds. The w ar ra ged on for the ne xt fo u r laps, until H aga missed the chi cane and dropped back 4.2 seconds. That mistake, however, quickly became a m oot point. On the fo llo win g la p , Haga's Yamaha s ta rted mi sfiring, sl o wing the bik e five s eco n d s per lap. Finally, o n lap 105, Yamaha's Noriyukl Haga was impres s ive. He teamed with S imon Crafar to finis h s ixth, a result that wou ld have been better If not for mechanical problems. H ag a cu t the course at Dunlop C u rve and rode straight to the pits to have the engine' s electronic co ntrol unit rep laced. It cos t th e team two laps, but they cut it back to o ne lap by the end of th e race. Afte r th e ra ce, th e te am was h anded a o ne-la p penalty fo r riding aro un d o n th e serv ice ro ad during a race. Th e next se ries of scheduled p it stop s occu rred o n laps 105 through 108. On lap 109, wi th th e firs t rid ers o n th e track for their third tour of duty, it was Ito in th e le a d b y 56 seconds o n G ib e rna u . Okada was third, a like di sta nce beh ind . The top three tea rns were se t, and th ey w ould hold the ir places through to th e fin ish. Serizawa was fourth, sca rce ly on th e lead lap, as w as fifth -placed Kensuke Haga. H aga pitted o n th e end o f lap 118 to repair the clut ch-a ctu ati on s y s t e m, which dropped th e team back a lap. No matter, because o n lap 133 Haga ta ngled wi th th e M oriwaki H onda VTR l OOOF in turn tw o , a n d both r id ers crashed. A Briefl .The total purse offered at the' S uzuka 8 Hours was $265.396. down $52.604 from 1997 due to devaluation of the ye n from 112 to 139 to the dollar: The -race paid out $127.9 14; quali ying paid f $64.748 (including start money of $ 1439 to the top 30 teams. and $719 to the 31st through 60th teams), and the Special Stage paid S63.885. Shinichi Ito 'a nd TohruU kawa earned $71.942 for winning the race: second-place finis hers Sete Gibernau and Alex Barros ea rne d S1 4 .388 : a nd third-placed Co lin Edwards II a nd Tadayuki Okada ea rned $7194. Ito and Ukawa were the top quahfiers and received $8633. followed by Yuichi Takeda and Daijiro Kato with$6475 and Noriyuki Haga and Simon Crafar with $5755, Ito and Ukawa' s payday in the Special S tage ' was $719 4. with Haga and Crafar grabbing $5036 and Hitoyas u Izuts u and Neil Hodgson with $4317 . s t r ea m o f gasoline s ta r ti ng fr o m th e track a nd run ning to Haga ' s Yamaha ca u g h t fi re, b u t was qui c kly extinguished . Haga left th e Yama ha in the gravel, bu t t h e Mo riwaki b ike wa s repaired and rejoined th e race . Th e second riders relieved th eir teammates on laps 132 th rough 135. Takeishi a n d Ru s s ell qu ickl y h o oked up i n a frisk y fight for fo urth th at was in terru p ted severa l times per lap by backmarkers . A t one poin t, Ru ssell gave up fourth to p ull u p alongside one backmarker, made his left hand like a revol ver, a nd let the dawdli ng ri der know exactly wha t h e thought of him. Rus sell th en ran d own Takei shi aga in, retook fou rth , a nd th en opened up a two-second lead on Takeishi. Ru ssell's co nfi d en t pre- ra ce predicti on of a s tr o n g fi nish looked set to co me tru e until lap 159, when he cracked the left h andleb ar and h ad to m ake an e mergency p it sto p . It cost Russell a nd tea mmate Fu jiwara a lap . . s pons orshl pIn the race to two of the official Ho nda tea ';' s ., Defending event champions Shinichi Ito and Toru Ukawa,were in Lucky Strike's red-and-olive colors (but with no' white in the pattern. which was unusualr, as were the 1997 pole qualifiers. Yuichi Taked a and Daijiro Kato.· The o ther two factory Honda tea ms . Tadayuki Okada and Colin Edwards II. and Set~ Gibernau and Alexandre Barros : were sponsored by Castrol. Lucky. Strike has a long hist ory of involvement in the race . b eginning with Yamaha in 1986 through 1988. and then with Suzuki from 1990 to 1997. Lucky Strike also s upported Kawasaki in 1995 and 1997. Nineteen-year-old Honda rider Shinichi Nakatoml became the first rider to compete in the race who was not born before the fi rst Suzuka race in 1978. Nakatomiand co-rider Makoto Tamada finished a respectable 10th on a Honda RC45, The two oldes t riders in the 8 Hours. Takao Abe (norelation to the Yamaha GP starl and Masaru Mizutani, with a co mbined age of 99 yea rs. were teammates on a Suzuki GSXR 750. They dropped out after 3 1/2hours. For all intents and purposes . the Suzuka 8 Hours will have no bearing on the championshlp points for World Endu r ance C hampion s hip . For the first time since it became part of the FIM World Endurance championship in 1980. no rider that has participate d in the first two rounds of the championship was present at Suzuka. European journalists presen t at the race sa id that the European riders regard Suzuka as too expensive and too competitive. and not worth the hassle forthe few points that are available to them , Moreover. the 24·hour races pay double points . wherea s an eight-hour race is just straight point s. Attendance was 14.000 on Thursday. 17.000 on Friday. 40.000 on Saturday. and 70,000 on Sunday, The race-day attendance of 70.000 was 5000 fewer than in 1997. when it rained all weekend . The very first Suzuka 8 Hours in 1978 also had 70.000 race -day spectators. and from 1980 to 1996 attendan ce had always been at least 100.000. The 130-page official program for the race made hist ory by includIng a free CD with the official .1 9 98 Suzu ka 8 Ho u rs s on9S: "Wind RolllOg Day." "Champion Rag," and "Sound of Step of Runner. " The official s o ngs were written and recorded by a Japanese band oddly named "Bore ." who headlined the free concert at Suzuka Circuit on Saturday night. The Suzuka Circuit sta rted promoling wedding receptions at the Suzuka Circuit Hotel a few years ago. and it has proved to be a hit. A wedding chapel has now been built on the Circuit Hotel grounds for indoor and outdoor wedding ceremonies, A wedding· reception package costs $64 75 per 50 people . and includes food. drin ks , weddmq cake , flowers . candles , invitation cards, light and so und. and hall rental. The promotional brochure also states thai the lucky groom can rent the Suzuka Circuit Honda NSX pace car for a victory lap the next day. After 'e ight yea rs with Suz uki. Luc ky Strike switched their This year's race had a slight modification to the event title . to the · S prite S uzu ka 8 Houes" from the "Sprite Cool Suzuka 8 Hours." It was the 15th year that the Coca -Cola Corporation has been involved as a title spo nsor. "Last year. both qualifying and the race were caught in the rain brought on by a typhoon," said Coca-Cola Japan president Kimio Furuta. "This year we are eage r for reallyhot days." Battling the heat at Suzuka is just one of many problems for' the riders. Ma ny of the teams use "dip tanks." or large wading pools. where the riders strip to their shorts. rinse themselves of perspiration in a first tank. and then relax In a second tank of cool water . Then it' s off to an air-cond itioned suite fo r a massage and /or intravenous drip to replace fluids. Aa ron S light withdrew from Suzuka due to the injunes he sustained at Laguna Seca and stayed home in New Zealand. recuperatinq, The stitches In his leg were removed on July 23. but his Had th e hand lebar la sted fou r m o re laps, Russ ell m ight h ad been a b le to have it re paired a nd stay in th e thick of it. It was th en th at race officials decided to put t w o pace ca rs o n t he tra c k to allo w com ers workers to dean oil fro m tke back straight. The use of two pa ce cars w as unusua l. but it was a good idea . It limited any g a in e d advantage to a m ax imum of a half-lap. H ence Ito's and Ukawa's halfla p lead on G ibernau and Barros was preserved, as w as the half-lap lead of Gibernau and Barros on Edwards and Okada. But th e two-pace-ca r idea turned ou t to be a b a d id ea for d ramatic ra cing . Now many riders found themselves half a la p away fro m th e next p osition, and the lap charts were essentially s teady until th e checkered flag, excep t for Ru ssell. Ru ssell had to d ro p two pl aces, to eig h th, in h is fina l ride w he n th e ignition syste m went flu ffy, a la Haga earlier in th e race . C~ Suzuka 8 Hours Suzuka City, Japan Results: July 26, 1998 OIA: 1. S. Ito / T. Ubwa (Ha n): 2. S. Gibemau/ A. Barre. (Hon ): 3 C. Ed wa rds lilT . Okada (Ho n): 4 S. Ta k ei sh i/ T. Se riza wa (Ka w ); 5. M. CTaggill / D-, Buckmaster (Ka w); 6. N. Haga / S. Crafar (Yam); 7. N. Hod gson /H . Izuts u (Kaw); 8. S. Russell / N . Fujiwara (Yam); 9. H, Aoki/M. Kamada (Ho n); 10. M. Tamada / S. Nakato mi (Ho nk 11. K. Kitagawa l A. Ryo (Suz); 12 O. N is h ijima / T. Ya ma m ot o (Kaw): 13. T. Kane yasu / Y. Suga (Hon); 14. M. Sa ito / T. Fukami (Yam); 15. J. va n den Goorbergh / J. Maeda

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