Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Endurance World Championship Round 6: Suzuka B Hour Kitagawa. Aoki's teammate, Osamu Deguchi, was in third, six to seven seconds down from Nukumi, after losing time in the pits when the rear stand failed to work properly with the motorcycle. Nukumi, to his credit, made up a After praising high-heaven for his doubly fortunate situation, an ecstatic Ukawa took off with Kitagawa in tow. Five laps later, however, the safety car was back on the course after Nobuyuki Mukai, an 8 Hour rookie, highsided in the Hairpin and lay motionless on the track. During the second safety car ses- few seconds on Kitagawa over the following laps. "Because of the early accident, the sion Ito pitted for fuel tank repairs and re-joined the race in 56th place, one lap down. After three rounds of the safety car the racing was back on. Ukawa gunned the Honda and gapped Kitagawa a second a lap for the next ten laps. entire race changed," said Nukumi about the new complexion of the race. "I had to do 30 laps per stint, which was something new for me. It was hard. I just tried to keep the pace." On lap 79 Kitagawa pitted, and Nukumi found himself in the outright lead on the following lap, a position almost unthinkable in the morning. Kitagawa pitted the thirsty Suzuki on lap 26, while Ukawa made it to lap 28 and Nukumi to lap 29. lzutsu took over from Ukawa while Katsuaki Fujiwara took over from Kitagawa. Over the next fifteen laps Izutsu increased the lead by two sec- The B rider of the B bike on the B team was upholding Honda's honor and did so admirably until he pitted onds on each lap. It looked as if lzutsu had this race wrapped up for himself and Ukawa, but then, suddenly, on lap 45 came the crash. lzutsu lost traction on the front tire at the Hairpin and had the Honda sliding. If there were a knife handy, you fourteen laps later. The Suzuki was waiting in second all this time, 24 seconds away. When Nukumi pitted, Katsuaki Fujiwara picked up the lead and held on to it until he pitted on lap 106. When Fujiwara brought the Suzuki in the pits, Kamada was on the Honda and now in the lead. Kitagawa put in a scintillating ride and took two seconds out of Kamada on every lap. might have seen Izutsu using it on himself. lzutsu had the big twin upright again and was in the pits for a new handlebar faster than Ukawa could get into his leathers. Two laps were Kitagawa passed Kamada on lap 115, and Kamada had no answer. The Suzuki tore off up the track and was over twenty seconds gone when lost replacing the broken-off bits, and then lzutsu was back on the track and storming through other riders. It was all immaterial. Within ten laps the Honda developed engine trouble, presumably debris ingested from the earlier wreck at the Hairpin. lzutsu was back in the pits, and the Honda technicians quickly concluded Kamada pitted on lap 123. Kitagawa's tearaway ride ended on lap 133 for a scheduled pit stop with Fujiwara. Fujiwara had the advantage on the Nukumi Honda by some 20 seconds, and the balance of power was clearly shifted in the Suzuki's favor. This time Fujiwara added another five seconds to the lead when Nukumi came in to the pits to switch that the problem was terminal. "I can't believe it. I absolutely I can't believe it," said Ukawa afterward about Izutsu's crash and retirement. over to Kamada. The Suzuki team hammered the Honda team and could make time Katsuakin Fujiwara picked up the lead following lzutsu's fall. Haruchika Aoki was tagged on to the rear of Fujiwara in second. Kamada was third, thirteen seconds later, with Yoshikawa fourth, another fourteen seconds off of Kamada. Aoki followed for a couple of laps seemingly at will. The interval from the Suzuki to the Honda grew from 30 seconds to a minute, and then a and then passed Fujiwara on lap 48. On lap 50 Aoki surrendered to the pits, and the lead passed back to Fujiwara. Four laps later Fujiwara minute and a half. The Suzuki fairy-tale ended in their final pit stop when the engine refused to restart. The electric starter couldn't get the engine to fire, nor could a frantic push of the bike down Pit Road. "In the last running the machine felt really good," explained Kitagawa. "Then when I saw the machine back was in the pits himself, and the lead passed to Kamada. The Kamada and Nukumi Honda in the pits on the television monitors, I thought, 'Oh, this can't be true.' Anyway, I had a very good time with was using the 6-stop strategy that Edwards and Katoh used to win the race last year, while most of the other teams were trying to make the race on seven stops. Katsuaki; we both tried really hard. It's unfortunate we had this kind of outcome. This is part of racing, and it can't be helped." Nukumi picked up the lead for the final time and was a lap ahead of Yoshikawa. The lead, in fact, was exactly one lap, and much to the dis- Kamada's turn to pit came on lap 61. Nukumi arrived on the track in second, twenty seconds down from 30 AUGUST 20, 2003' .. U .. I e neVils Anthony Gobert and Adam "Crusty" Fergusson rode the Corona Extra Tiforce Endurance Suzuki GSXR1000 to an excellent eighth-place finish overall and third in the XF1 class. may of Nukumi's team, Yoshikawa flickered his headlight and tried other distractionary tactics to force Nukumi into making an error. "I knew I was two minutes from the leader," explained Yoshikawa. "Being old, I was trying to distract him with the lights in the dark to see if he would crash or go off the track. But I couldn't make that happen." Yoshikawa's attempt at light humor failed to amuse Nukumi, and the Honda rider took the checkered flag in front of 73,000 cheering spectators. The Suzuka 8 Hour always promises much, but in the end, it failed to deliver. Nukumi and Kamada may have rode a flawless race, but the race the fans came to see was over after one lap. eN Suzuka 8 Hour Suzuka,Japan ResuU$:August3,Z003 SPEaAL STAGE 00AllFlNG: I. T. Tsujimunl/S. Ito (2:07552): 2. A wotanabe/Y. K"9"Yoma (2:07.655): 3. K. KitagawalK. Fujiwara (2:07.754); 4. T. Ukawa/H. Iwtsu (2.-Q/l.433): 5. T. Yamaguchi/Y. Takahash; (2:08.598): 6. N. Hoyden/R. Kiyonari (2:00.711): 7. T. 0k0d0IC, Kameyo (2:08.730): 8. N. Fuj;w.r'/T. Kayo (2:08.893): 9. S. NakaIomi/W. Yoshikaw. (2:09.100): 10. Y. Kooishi/T. MOO (2.-09.474). SOZUKA 8 HOUR: 1. Yukio Nukumi/Gaku Kamada (Hon); 2. Shinichi Nakatomi/Waluru Yoshikawa (Yam); 3. Tllkeshi Tsujimurlll/Shinichi Ito (Hon); 4. Jason Pridmore/J"mes Ellison/Jimmy Undstrom (Suz); 5. Gwen Giebbanin-akaharu Kishida (Suz): 6. Mitsuo Saito/Takahiro Fukami (Yam); 7. Osamu Deguchi/HlIruchike Aoki (Hon); 8. Adam Fergusson/Anthony Gobert (Suz); 9. Jordan Szoke/paul Young (Suz): 10. Tatsuye Yamaguchi/ Yuki Takahashi (Hon). UD!l@ [f]G!JD@ @fff]G!J[0@[0 @@[JiJ7][J@I!l@m;ssw [J{J@fff]@fff]@W@[0 New for the 2003 Suzuka 8 Hour were supplementary regulations created by Suzuka Circuit that limited slick tires to a maximum of ten sets per team over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Excluded from this restriction were the tires used in the one-lap qualifying Special Stage session on Saturday afternoon for the top twenty teams. As most teams planned for seven pit stops during the race, simple arithmetic indicated that two dry sets were the most tires one could use for the nonrace activities over the three restricted days. Scheduled non race track over those three days is three- plus hours for two rider teams, four-plus hours for three rider teams. Slick tires used on restricted days were all individually numbered, stamped and logged into a book to record when and where each slick tire was used. "The reason why is cost, number one: explained Suzuka Circuit general manager Tetsuo Mihara. "And the different skills of the teams. The factory teams come and can spend lots of money on tires. This year there's only ten sets (of dry tires) for qualifying and the race. Ten sets is maybe not so good, but it is adequate for the 8 Hour race." Michelin's Nicholas Gaubert came out in favor of the rule, though it did cause some problems for Michelin and the Honda teams it supports. "I'm not against (the tire rule): Gaubert sajd. "It's not a bad idea. The only thing I wish was that it was more clear from the beginning. It was not clear about the wet tires. They wanted to limit the number of slicks. They didn't want anybody to use a false hand-cut tire for qualifying. So what they did at the beginning was said that all hand-cut tires would be forbidden. But, for our front 16.5-inch wheel, we don't have any molded rain tires. So it meant that we could not use our 16.5-inch front tires. We made everybody switch to 17-inch wheels, because we have· a molded rain tire for 17-inch wheels. Then, just by discussing with them and making them understand that we just djdn't have any molded 16.5-inch rain tires, they said at the beginning of the week, 'Okay, you can use (hand-cut 16.5-inch rain tires).' But it was too late, everybody was set up with 17-inch wheels. In that area I'm not too happy, obviously. But the idea to limit the number of tires is a good idea for endurance races. I thjnk they should do the same in 24-hour races." Like Gaubert. Suguru Kanazawa, president of Honda Racing Corporation, was not opposed to the new rule. "I don't think it's not so difficult to use just ten tires. In practice we can use one or two. In the race we pit six times. It's enough, ten tires."

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