Sakari H o n d a satellite team rider
Daijiro Kato was th e final rider in th e '
Special Sta ge, mearting he h ad the
fas test lap time in qualifying, yet he fin ish ed th e Special Stage third . Kat o was
Ito' 5 b ig ge st threat for losing pole, a s
Kato re cord ed the firs t 2:08 lap b y a
s u pe rb ike in a ra ce event a t Su zuka durin g Frid a y ' s practic e . Kato d id a
2 :08 .860 o n Frida y m ornin g , and a
2:08.892 Frida y aft ernoon . But on Saturd a y , Kato lapped the co u rse at "ju s t"
2:09.393.
"For the Special Stage I only had two
laps: one lap to warm up, and one lap to
a ttack," said Kat o through an interpreter.
"I didn't have enough time, a nd I'm not
satisfied."
Kato, who normall y rid e s H onda
NSR250 r a ce bikes in t he A ll-Japan
Series , claimed t ha t he needs more
th a none warm-up lap to get comfortable
on a superbike.
Ka te 's te ammate, Ma ko to T amada ,
had a Special Stage time of 2:10.525.
N ori yuki Ha ga ' s time gave th e new
Yamaha R-7 th e fou rth pl ace on th e lin eup, and Haga had m ixed feelings abou t
th e result.
"This time, a 2:09, is th e firs t time for
m e ," h e sa id, " Bu t I think ma ybe we
ha ven't tested the bike eno ugh."
Haga 's time was 2:09.719.
Nor cou ld it be sai d that H aga's teamm a te, Regis Laconi, had e no ugh tes ti ng
ei the r. Th e Fren chm an recorded 2:11.868
in the Special Stage and 2:12.224 in qualifying, a nd ea rned the dubious honor of
slowest factory rid er.
Ta dyuki O ka da secured fifth in the
Special Stage with a res pectable time of
(Above) Okada an d Barros lift the winne r's troph y at the conclusion of the
e ight-hour race.
(Right) Jamie Hacking rode a box-sto c k Yamaha R7to an eventual 14thplace finish with his teammate Norihiko Fujiwara.
2:09 .754 . " It o -sa n , h e like very much
these Special Stage," sa id O kada. "Also,
m y tire, not new one. Everybody using
new tire. Th e Special Stage, this is very
scary - safety firs t!"
When O kada 's teammate, Alex Ba rros, had his tum wi th th e Honda ea rlier
in the Special Stage, Barros was timed at
2:10.828.
"This was m y second ex perience with
Special Stage following last year," Barros
said . " Las t year our grid p os iti on w as
10th 'and we finis hed seco nd in th e race.
So I kn ow we d on't have to worry abou t
today' s position. Also, I kn ow th at Tady
will q ualify b etter than m ysel f." Then
Ba rros a d ded p rophe tically: "We will
make a good start tomorrow and wi n th e
race. "
T he first A merican i n the Special
Stage results was John Kocin sk i, stopping the docks at 2:10.032 on his RC45.
elected to take 'the :r~serve·rider posttton. -(Regis i Lacoru ~me '~ver' ~nd ' . That's one oi the inairi 'reasbns why I 'think it's starting ti; go ·d~wn.· With
did the 200K race and that was the plan. he was going to do : I think · I know - from my past thing, I know I'm reallyfast ' being here. For instance. Kurtis ,Roberts: He's a reserve ,rider here. but if
around here : on every bike I've. ridden on Dunlops around here . There ,he had the chance to ride, if-he was able to just go out and blister the
wasn' t a spot on (the Dunlop YamahaBe? bike). so I'm third rider on race track, jus t s rrioke.around this place , his caree r would change. there 's
Michelin, which suits me fine, I was two seconds slower (on a R:7 with 'no doubt. 'And it would changa fast . It's just like any other deal, in Japan
Michelins) t hanl was on the old bike on D unlops.t The thing is. vthe thing , : or-anywhere. Until a person sees for,their own self, with their, own eyes :
I've always tried to keep quiet about on .Michelin vs, Dunlop" is r know
what's goingon,with a rider, and they can s tand there and watch'them for
·that Michelin is good, they're Wand Champions at what they do, the pea· .' three or fourdays . their demeanor and how they work and how they do
pie and staff in there are great, I get on reall goodwith them, I like 'them · 'with their 'work ethics as far as their practice-and qualifying' and 'race and
y
but I don't' get' on well with their tires. I'm disappointed thatl don't. but I all that:.. we ll, until you see that with your own eyes, it's neve r rea lly
don't. I <10 my be st
Dunl ps.: definitely, and I look forward to getting cemented in. I thinl< the 'factories over here 'are kind of that way, really. .
o
back on them so I cand o my best. My immediate plans are not to go and ' Yeah, youcan read and get faxes and you can hear from people overseas
jump on any old bike just to do a race, I wa~t to do it properly, and I've about this guy and that guy, but it's not the sa me as s tanding.the re and ,
got some tes ts lined up on f actory bikes for next year. both World Super. you watching yourself and confi nning 'it in your own mind, So it does have
bike and Grand Prix. That' s what I've planned to do • obviously on Dun- some value to come over herean d do this race, for thar reason. Also: it's
lops, I'm not inte rested 'in racing s uperbikes in America at this time, ' a very competitive fie ld..This is an eight-hour s uperbike race, an eightbeca use I .reall want to stay and do the World Championshtp, I live in hour superbike race, If you want to get some track time in on a.race track
y
Europe. and I want to .stay there and do the 'World Championship and be that' s so technical. if you can master this race track, you 'can master anybased there.'It's reall what I've been' aiming at all along, and I love doing thing in the world." .
y
."
it. But myw ife and I have talked about racing in America. How do I put it?
.
When I've had enough of dOing what I'm doing . and It'S the ultimate. real. The X-Forrnula support class wa s won by the Yoshim'ura Suzuki
Iy. is to then go and see the States and enjoy U.S. racing. It's Well worth Ha yab us a ' hot rod, which completed the 8 Hours in 16th overall. -We
considering, but right 'now I've got .a good four. five years left of racing. had quite a few problems, actually,- lau'ghed' J:'ujiO Yoshimura du'ring 'the
I've had a major hiccup in '99. but I believe in 2000 and on, I won't repeat .team's celebration. ·-We had an electric problem with the starter; We had
"it again. I know why,I made the mistake.' '
to.chanqe the whole s tarter and the handlebar. which has allthe electric
switches. Then we gave,the wrong sign to the rider. The rider came into .
Reigning World Endurance champion Doug Poie n made his fi'rst appear- the pits. but he didn't have any problem, we just gave him the wrong sign.
ance on a race trackin 1999 aboard a Kawasaki ZX·9R, tea med with We gave him the 'P' sign, so we made an extra stop. Then the bracket for
.Tadahiko Mori. 'Polen and Mori were riding for Mote-Liberty boss Sam the silencer broke · twice. So finally we had to change the whole silencer
Yamashita, and their Kawasaki had a Dan Kyle-tuned engine. Their ZX·9R at the very end of the race so it would go the distance. I think if everything
was entered in the X·Fonnula division, a 'support class that the Ja panese went an right. I think it would finish like sixth, sornethinq like that. We're
do not allo
wthe factories to compete in directly, and with a bike-clairrunq 'going to.be finishing top 10 F sure. next year.- .
or
rule that prevents exotic race bikes from
entering. P olen and Morl scored
~ DNFwhen th,:y withdrew after three hours.
.'
Colin Edw a rd s II seid that his plans to g'et married on December 11
are 'stillon track. "Yep,'I'm getting married December 1" 'so all them hot
Pole n's first Suzuka 8 Hours was in , 987 on the the n.powe rhouse , 'chicks out there better get a hold of me before thenlWe've been togeth- '
1
' Yos himura S uzuki squad. Polen had much to say a n how the race has ' . er for.eight 'Years. I reckon if I'm not 'sure now' then I've got so mething
,
changed since then. "Of course , the biggest thing is the amount of fans wrO'ig with- me. It's going to be aweso me. We 're going'to have our dog in
thata re here." he sa id. "There's no. doubt abo utthat. So they C uzuka .i t,·he's going to be, the ring bearer, 'An English'bulldog • 'Scooter : he' s
S
Circu it) : keep trying. to chan ge the whole program: the whole .S uzuka, going tohave a tux and cummerbund and all that s hit, oh yeah.. That's just
sc ene.. to bring th e '1987 times back.' The n. they ,had ,100,000 people ' one of the tricks we've got linedup,"
., .'
,
"
,,
,
' ,,
'
.here, and 50,000 more outside the ,gate trying to get in. They had, what, · , .
' 40,000 or 60,000 here last .year, total? Big diff
ere'nce as faras people are For the first timesince the 8 Hours beqan in.1978, no Australian riders
concemed. But the racing and all that is the sa me, Noneof that isreally . competed.' Another sign of the times: the 8 Hours was broadcasted live
any 'different. It's just unfortunate , though. There's a lot of race fans in ' on satellite 'TV in Japan instead of. on a major network, And 'the popular
'
Japan : it's really hard for a guy that' s se eri the 'whole thing go from' com: spot for,lunch at Suzuka, the on-track McDonalds, is now closed. The
·plet e interest to, gee, it's just anotberevent. One ofthe reasons I ihink ' popular, low-priced A merican fast food restaurant was stealing bu siness
·that some of this is like this is because ofthe J apane se economy, People , from the other food-service outlets , and also reduced thetrack's take on
, are.starting to get a lillie tight with thejr money. Tickets here aren't cheap; commissions from food sales.
on
The 8 Hours was Kocinski's firs t race on
a fo ur-s troke m otorcy cle in n early tw o
years:
"T h a t was a n average lap," sai d
Ko cinski when asked fo r a co m ment.
"The thing is, we wasted so much time
here with what the standard setting was,
we didn't start to cha nge things to w hat
.we th ought until the las t 20 m inutes of
our free practice. We 've rea lly los t out a
lot on practi ce. It would jus t be a m a tter
of being ab le to work now a little bit with
the setting we ha ve, for I know I co uld go
2:095."
Kocinski's te amm a te in th e Special
Stage was Freddie Spencer, who ha d
wi thd rawn from the 8 Hours after break'ing a bone in his righ t han d on Thursday.
Spence r 's lap o f 2:18.394 was slow p er
tea m orders, and was done since Hond a
had brought Spen cer to Suzuka to please
th e fans.
For th e r a ce , Ko cin s ki wo u ld b e
te amed w it h Yu ich i Ta ked a , a fac to ry
Honda su perbike rid er in Japan. But poor
Ta keda w as looking at learning Kocin sk i's sett ings in the race, a n d lea rni ng
Michelin tires for th e first time in the race
as well.
Ten th overall went to Colin Edwards
II, who guided his Honda RC45 to a time
of 2:10.684.
"That was my best lap of the weekend," said the la n ky Texa n. " It wasn 't
bad. I was trying to get a decent one, but
before I. went out I said, 'What we don't
need is a 2:10 .6, 'ca u se it wouldn 't do
anything for us.' A 2:10.6 wouldn't move
us up. And I went out and did a 2:10.6. I
needed a 2:10.2 or a 2:10.0."
Edwa rd's teammate , Slight, was
slightly slower, a t 2:10.904.
Edwards claimed that in testing he
had the 8 Hours RC45 aro u nd Suzuka at
2:09.4, so what was the problem?
" It's really ha rd when you have two
people that reaIIy know the m otorbike,"
explained Slight. "We couldn' t rea lly ge t
a comfortable com p ro m ise or anything.
We sort of tuned ourselves to a standstill.
I don' t know w hy . A t leas t wi th the othe r
teams...
O kada has ridden th e bike a lot , so he
se t it up and Barros rode it. Kocins ki set
up th e bike and Ta keda rode it. Like Ito
a nd U kawa . It o ri d es th e b ike a lot of
times, a nd Ukawa is ju s t on a 250. We
bo th have RC45s, so we bo th wan t d ifferent things. That was th e main p ro blem all
weekend . We co u ldn' t get the b ike to
w hat we wanted, 'caus e we eac h wan ted
different things."
CIII
en
en
en
~
35
