Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race Round 4: Sprite Su~uka 8 Hours WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP (Left) Co lin Edwards II and Aaron Slig ht finish ed s eco nd o n their Castrol Honda, but were n ot on the same pace as the winning duo. (Above) Fre nc hman Reg is Laconi wasn't up to speed o n his Yamaha, bu1 his teammate Noriyukl Hagarod e har d to put the team in fo urth at the finish . down again, but I w as already in a rut, kinda cruising around." Yanagawa had taken 21 seconds out of Edwards w hen the final round of pit stops started. If Izulsu could do the same, then the Kawasaki would be positioned for a shootout with the Honda at the end of the eight hours. The two teams co n tes ting second had th eir final riders o n th e track and up to speed by lap 191, and Izutsu w as within 15 seconds of Slight. Slig ht's margin th en started crashing lik e th e stock market. O n la p 192 Izutsu was w it h in 13 .9 seconds, la p 193 withi n 10.9, la p 194 withi n 9.1, lap 195 wi th in 82, and lap 196 w as 6.9 seconds. "T he last h our w hen I first came out I had 12 seconds, 14 sec onds, and then it ju st ca me d own a n d down," r e called Slight. "I w a s going as fast as 1 could. I d id lo w 2:12s, but he must have be en doing lo w 2:11s. A ll I was praying fo r w as th at it wou ld ge t dark very quickly." It did g et da r k q uic k ly, but w ha t Sligh t d id n 't kno w was that Ka w asaki had ga mbled again, and filled soft tires for Izutsu's last ride. "I saw his back, I could see hi m in the Hairpin," sa id Izutsu thro u g h an interpreter. 'The lights lit his back. But once I got close enough to see him the tire started going away. I didn't give up, but the tire wasn't th ere." Slight brought th e Honda home second, a lap behind Barros. "I was hoping to be on the podium. I knew w e could be top five because o u r te sting limes had go n e so good," s aid Slight when as ked abou t his thoughts on race day morning. "Our testing wasn't that great in o ne lap, but w e could do consistent laps. So I w as counting on that to get us in the top five. And if something went wrong w ith someone else, we'd be there." Th e co nsis te ncy s tra tegy worked for Edwards a nd Slig ht for second, but what won the race for Okada and Barros was superior rid in g skill in a ll conditions. CN '" '" '" ~ Suzuka 8 Hours Suzuka City, Japan Results : July 24-25, 1999 ~ - ~ Ul :::> en :::> < 34 FINAL: 1. Tada yu ki O kada /Alex Barros (Ho n); 2. Aa ron Slig h t /Coli n Ed w a rds II (Ho n) ; 3. Ak ir a Yana ga w a /Hitoy As uizu tau (Ka w) ; 4. No riy u ld Hag a/Regis Laconi (Yam); 5. Shin ya Take ishi /Tamaki Ser izawa (Kaw); 6. Osa m u Nishijrna /Ryuji Tsuruta (J(aw); 7. John Kocin..ki/ Yuichi Takeda (Hon); 8. Daijiro 'Kata / Makota Tamada (Hon); 9. Yukio Nukumi /Kei Na sh imo to IHon}; to. Wa taru Yosh ik awa /Tak es hi Ts u jimu ra (Ya m); 11. Tarayu ki Su zuki /Ken ichiro Nakamura IHo n); 12. Hira ki Noda /Tomonari Kimura (Hon ); 13. khiro Asai /Masataka Hayashi (Yam); 14. Jami e Ha ck ing /Norihik o Fuj iwara (Yam) ; 15. Yuji Haraguch f/Yoshinor! Kcrogt (H o n ): 16. G aku Kam ad a / I'\'a ot o Ogura (Suz ); 17. Tats uya Yamada /Shoich i Ts u ka mot o (Ka w) : 18, Toshia Kob ay ash i / Mas a ki Tokun o (He n) ; 19 . Hi rok ! Kobay""hi /M.=ki Tokuno (Hon ); 20, Pet.". Octll /Reip Saakakibara (Yam), . ',fl BrIe Y HI IIIUlI dv Illlge fir III T he Special Stage' was brough t in to the 8 Hours in 1994 to provide a fast -paced alternative to watching limed practice and th e long race itself. To build up a little excitement, in o ther w ords. This one was depressing. Not that the ridin g w as not spectacular, it was. What was d epressing was see- '' ing Honda's Shinichi Ito take pole positio n again fo r the second straight year, u nderlining the feeli ng th at all Ito and tea m mate Tohru Ukawa had to do was show up on Sunday a nd a thi rd straight 8 Hours victory was theirs wi thout a fight. Ito's Special Stage time of 2:09 .210 improved o n his qualifying time of 2:09.597. "Although I was trying to get into 2:08's today and co u ld n' t, I'm sa tis fied with today's lime, w hich is better than all m y previous testing times here," said the Japanese Superbik e Champion through an interpreter. "It's nice to get o n th e pol e position again, and I have a good feeling for th e rac e." Teammate Ukawa clock ed his Special Stage lap a t 2:10.316. "For the Special Stage I w as more cautious than usual because I crashed a t th e H ai rpi n curve during free p ractice this afternoon, and bruised my left littl e finger," Ukawa said. "Still. I was happy to k now that my ti me w a s in the 2:lOs. I k new Ito would get a better qualifying time than myself." Ito' s Special Stage lap had ta ken provi sional p ol e away from Kawasaki 's Akira Yanagawa, who recorded a time of 2:09.388 two riders before Ito . Yanagawa nea rly crashed in Spoon Curve during th e Special Sta ge, "T h a t time, too much grip (from the rear tire)," Yanagawa said. 'Then push th e fron t lire and the bik e goes outside. That lime, very angry (wi th) myself." Yanagawa's teammate, Hitoyasu Izuts u, r eco rd ed a Special Stage lap of 2:09.863 . Th e pair had the best combined limes of all th e teams. ' ence between riding (a race bike) every wee k and not riding," By the second Honda test session for the 8 Hours, Spencer had to quicklY relearn . ' • • ', , " thetouch for the tires and the throttle, " Each day it Came back a little bit , . . , more, I went a .bttle- bit faste r: a 2:13·flat. by the middle of the second ' -The biggest buzz In-the leild-tip to the 8 Hours was Fr8ddle Spencer's tesi. Then we started 'trying some suspension stuff that didn't work:' return to racing, ,Spence r claimed the 500cc Grand Prix crown for , Spencer's ,third visit to Suzuka Ciroult was for tbeB Houes race' Itself: In Honda In 1983 and the 2SOcc and 500cc double World'Champions hips in untirned practice on Thursday morning, Spencer,claims he was ninnin9 1985, and Spencer is to Honda Motor Corporation ';"hat astronaut -John laps at 2:13 without push ing himself. when suddenly the front tire lost , ' G I~nn i to ,NASA.,Thus Spencer's return after 'a four-year retirement ' grip, rega!ned traction. and sen t Spencer over thetop of the bike. landing s from racing. was for Honda akin to John Glenn's rideon the space shuttle 'on his head and hands, Spencer walked back to the pits' and opted to not 'last year, -Wayne Gardner arid I were approecbed at the 50th anniversary "ride the remainder of Thursday to allow the soreness in'his hands' to go event in Octob~r( 1998) , about doing (the 8 Hours in 1999). - Sp encer , away: But the pain was still prese nt during Friday morning timed practice, said: ' The first timethat the subjec t was brought up was Sunday night. in " ana an X-ray revealed a broken bone in Spencer's right hand and possible broken finger,on his left. Although the .iojunes' were relatively minor. ithere October at Motegi..,A.nd I s aid, 'Yeah, that might be fun: and thought that ' was it. Bu1 (Honda)stayed in contact with us . I gues s it was the begin'ning ' were well-placed doubts with Horida and Spencer himself,on his,ability io of April that they : HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) .. had firmed every- . run the demanding Hours endurance race, At 2 p.rn, on Friday, 'a press thing up, But ";'hen 'the time came to agree to actuallydo It'-Wayne ,(Gard- .release was hurriedly dist ributed statinqthat Freddie S pencer had with- . ,ner) had already signee a deal with Toyota to race here (in Japan) in a , ' drawn from the 8 Hours, 'Y",ichi Takeda, a factory rider for Honda in the touring car, So Gardner couldn't do it, so I,actua llyput it aside." Gardner ,AlI·J apan Superbike Championship. replaced Spence r. , was 500c c World Ch amp ion in 1987. end .Is the only ride r to win the Suzuka 8 Hours four times. "But after Wayne couldn't do it, Italked to. 8 'Tadyuki' Okada a~dAlex Barros baggEid 10 million yen, or $85,470; for few peop le about doing it.' said Spe ncer. the racing, bug, st UI with him, , the 8 Hours .win. Colin Edwards and Aaron Slight took home 2million yen ' Then J ohn'(Kocinski} was brought in to do it. That was actually the end '($ 17.094) for second. and Aktra.Yenaqawa and Hitoyasu Izutsu were of May, So the time betwee n when it was going .to actually happen and I given One million yen ($8547), Shinichi Ito and.Tohru Ukawa received 1.2 was here for.the first test was only three weeks,' . ' ' milliofl yen ($ 10,256) for qualifying and ,winning the Spec ial Stage , Yana, gawa and lzutsu rece ived 900 .000 yen ($7692) for qualifying and earnSpencer currently runs' a riding school at La s Vegas Motor Speedway. ingsecond place in the Special-Staqe. and Daijiro Kato and Makoto TarnaWhich' keeps him active on motorcycles. albeit street bikes. and no doubt . da received 800 .000 yen <$6838)for third, :' ,' " ,.". ':, . . frequently reminds hirnof his former career at rece tracks around theword, ' . . "You always have to be very senous about (racing),- Spencer said •I've , Ku rtis Roberts was brought to Suzuka by Honda to be a reserve rider been riding, but not a race bike. I thought It would be fun to do; and it bas for the Okada-and-Barros team. Robert s practiced and qualified with a been - It'S been real1y good:, it's been great. Uke I said. riding at my schOol best time of 2:15', 180. but it's normal for reserve riders to' ride well Wi,thin has kept ~e pretty active. but a race bike js different.- Spencer took part in themselves. The rules in AM endurance racing do not allow subs titu tion the two test .sessons at Suzuka for the riders Honda was planning to enter oncethe 8 Hours begins, -so Boberts has no claim to the victory by Okada for the 8 Hours. -The first (tes Owas completely wet. The first time (for mel and Barros , . . ' on a race bike iri four years and It was pouring down rain. Sci that was kind of interesting, But then it dried out towards the endof the test, Then it was . Robe rts free ly admitte d to res e rvations .about racmq o n the Lucky a mailer of gelling the bike worl

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