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World Endurance Championship Round 6: Suzuka 6 Hou s two seconds behind Yanagawa. Serizawa was another second and a half behind Kitagawa in seventh. Takeda was a long 14 seconds farther back, and Matsudo and Gobert were another four seconds away. After riding with a cool head for 10 laps, Rossi tried to drop his lap times from the 2:10 range to 2:09, but was bogged down in backmarkers. "This is not like a Grand Prix," Rossi explained. "For the first hour, it is necessary to wait. After waiting 10 laps, I was more fast, so I try to go, but it was difficult." Indeed, none of the top 10 riders could promote themselves in the running order over the next three laps. On lap 14, Gobert winged his way around Matsudo, and Kato decided to show-off his Honda to Ryo. Bright-red Hondas were now in the top three places. Okada and Kato dropped their lap times to the 2:09 range to get back to less than two seconds behind Rossi, but the fiyil1g Italian had the afterburners on. Over the next three laps, Rossi's lead swelled to five seconds over the Japanese aces. There were many eventful crashes on the day, fortunately none serious save for Deguchi's cracked ribs. The first spectacular incident was with Yanagawa: Coming out of the chicane on lap 20, Yanagawa plowed right into the backside of a backmarker. The backmarker stayed up and continued on his Sunday stroll at Suzuka, but Yanagawa was sent rolling through the grass. "One rider, slow rider, he lost gear or he brake at the exit of the chicane," Yanagawa explained. "Then my bike hit him. I try to escape, but my front-brake lever hit him." Fortunately, it was a low-speed crash, and neither Yanagawa nor his bike sustained damage. In fact, Yanagawa claimed the bike was better after the crash! "Actually, after the crash my bike feel better, especially front end. I don't know why," Yanagawa said. "Next two hours, I did really good lap times, consistent many laps." Yanagawa rejoined the race in 20th place and rode six more laps before pitting. The first factory riders to pull in to the pits were Okada and Gobert on lap 24, 52 minutes into the race. Rossi, Ryo, Matsudo and Takeda came in on the next lap, and by lap 26, Kato, Serizawa and Yanagawa were in for fuel and tires, and to hand-off riding chores to their teammates. Yanagawa's teammate Izutsu was back in the pits after one lap complaining of brake troubles, front and rear, which took seven minutes to service. Izutsu pulled in again after one lap with the new brakes for adjustments, and then rejoined the race five laps down in 58th place, to the good of just six other teams. The first round of pit stops were completed by the one-hour mark. Edwards was leading Kagayama on the quick Suzuki by a second, with Barros and Ukawa six seconds behind in a battle for third. Lavilla was a lengthy 42 seconds behind Barros and Ukawa, with Toshiyuki Arakaki on the ex-Kitagawa X-Formula bike on his heels. Haga was seventh, 15 seconds back, but lapping significantly faster than Lavilla and Arakaki. Takeda's teammate Yamaguchi was a couple seconds behind Haga, and Yoshikawa, on the second factory Yamaha, a similar distance behind Yamaguchi in ninth. Three other teams were still on the lead lap. The Hondas were now 1-2-3, a situation that would hold for the next 136 laps. Edwards had eight seconds on Barros and Ukawa by lap 35, who were circulating the track in formation. Kagayama was 16 seconds from the GP duo, but 37 seconds ahead of Lavilla. Haga was sixth, six seconds away from Lavilla, after passing Arakaki two laps earlier. Arakaki would suffer the same from Yoshikawa two laps later. Ukawa drafted past Barros on the front straight at the beginning of lap 36, igniting a fire in Barros to immediately retake second from Ukawa in the S-Curves, and start methodically taking time out of Edwards' sizeable lead. "I have problem with the grip," Barros explained later. "At that time, the ground was 50-degrees Celsius [122 degrees F]. It was very hot - the most hot conditions we ever race. Also, Colin [Edwards] not so fast, but I don't want to take a risk. I know the tire, under this condition, it's very hot for Dunlop and Michelin. So I want to keep a little bit the physical, to keep smooth, to feel the machine." The factory teams were approaching the second round of pit stops by lap 50. Edwards held a six-second advantage on Barros, who held a twosecond advantage on Ukawa. Kagayama was seventeen seconds behind Ukawa, fortunate to not have lost more time since his off-course ride at Spoon. Haga was some 50 seconds away from Kagayama in fifth, a place that the Yamaha would stay rooted in for the next five hours. Lavilla was a couple seconds away from Haga. Yoshikawa was 21 seconds back, and had been losing time hand-over-fist for the last 10 laps. Barros initiated the pit stop activity on lap 51, one hour and 52 minutes in to the race. Edwards and Haga pitted the following lap, Kagayama, Lavilla, Yoshikawa, Yamaguchi and Izutsu on the next lap, and Ukawa the only one to hold out until lap 54. "The first hour, for me, it was easy," Edwards said. "When I got off the bike I felt like a million bucks. Just cruised around, do some consistent laps, and away we go." Team Suzuki pulled a surprise for the third hour by putting Atsushi Edwards gives way to Rossi during one of the team's several quick pit stops. 10 AUGUST 22, 2001 • CUD I e newws Edwards rode well then gave plenty of credit to his teammate Rossi after the pair won the Suzuka 8 Hours. Watanabe on the bike rather than first-hour Ryo. Watanabe is part of the All-Japan Superbike Championship Suzuki factory team, still, Team Suzuki's move was another facet of the unorthodox strategy by Suzuki for this year's 8 Hours. "We are very competitive people," Ryo explained. "We needed the strength of the three to keep pace for the eight hours, so we decided to use three riders." Lap 55 saw the clock hit two hours. Six bikes were still on the lead lap, with Rossi three seconds clear of Okada. Kato was ten seconds behind Okada, with the former's team having a longer pit stop than the other two Honda teams. Watanabe was 10 seconds adrift from Kato, and Gobert was a full minute and change from Watanabe. Serizawa, nine seconds behind Gobert, was the last of the bikes not to be "-1" t~ Rossi and Edwards. On lap 58, Yuichi Takeda went from eighth place, one lap down, to 11th place, two laps down, when he had to pit for exhaust-pipe repairs. Takeda was observed kicking imaginary objects while his mechanics carried out their duties. On the track, the action was hotting up. The sky was now overcast with clouds, and the riders were getting better lap times out of their tires. Okada worked the gap down to unc;ler a second by lap 64, and on the following lap Kato set the fastest time of the race to that point at 2:09.343. But Okada and Kato had trouble stringing fast laps together, and Okada later complained of rear-traction problems during this hour due to machine setup, and not from tire selection. Okada's interval from Rossi grew from a second to over five seconds from lap 72 until he pitted on lap 78.