Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

® Jason Pridmore, James Ellison and Jimmy Undstrom The Honda CBR954RRof Shinichi Ito and and Takeshi Tsujimura found its way to the podium by race end with a thirdplace finish. ®® one knew that one of the bikes was having problem with the oil. They should have red-flagged right then "It was lucky that no rider had been seriously injured today, but we would strongly request to the organiz- and put the safety car at the Degner Curve. At that time the riders were still in the Esses; there was plenty of er to improve safety measures," said Nakajima sternly. Their protests were disallowed, but the complaining raged on. Tohru Ukawa took the lead from Ito in Dunlop Curve on lap two. Ukawa was unaware of the multibike time for everybody to slow down," fumed Yoshimura, who added that race officials had a second chance to introduce the safety car at the chicane but failed to act. With the crash scene just down the track from the pit exit, Nakajima and Yoshimura hoped their riders could drag their snaggletoothed motorcycles back to the pits for repairs. Though their hopes for victory were out the window, there were sponsors that wanted to see the bikes running on the track again. Hopes for a comeback were dashed when race officials arrived at the crash scene and loaded the three motorcycles on the crash truck. "The riders resisted, 'No, no, no; we want to push the bike back to the pit so we can fix it,''' explained Yoshimura. "But (the race officials) just pulled up the trailer and shoved the bike on. They didn't listen. We felt that was the wrong decision. Right then you're out of the race." Nakajima and Yoshimura marched to the offices of the race officials and filed similar protests relating the management of race and fallen riders and then jointly held court in the media center to explain their extraordinary action. accident until he reached the chicane and noticed coverage on the jumbo television display for the fans. '" think I was lucky, because' can't see oil flag in first corner," explained Ukawa. "I take a little bit different line. 'thought somebody might have crashed in first Ess corner already. It was just a feeling - I don't know why. After the chicane there is a big television screen with many rider crashed. I go, 'Wow, unbelievable.' Then' look back, and almost no one there! Almost eight seconds to the next rider. I cannot believe it." Safety car flags were displayed at start/finish at the start of the third lap, but the safety car itself did not appear for two more laps. Ukawa slowed the pace to 2:20, and the riders held the order regarc;tless. The safety car made four rounds of the circuit, and then racing resumed on lap nine. The Seven Star Honda duo of Toru Ukawa and Hitoyasu Izutsu were blowing the field away prior to Izutsu's crashing at the hairpin on lap 45. After getting the bike repaired, the bike's motor quit 10 laps later, ending their race. 4th Overall The Whirley Phase One Endurance's Jason Pridmore, James Ellison and Jimmy lindstrom fourth-place fihishing was every bit as astonishing as the Nukumi and Kamada victory. Like the winning Honda, the Whirley Phase One team stayed out of trouble while the competition did otherwise. "It's a matter of staying out of trouble the first hour of the race, and that's basically what I did," recalled Pridmore about the chaos on lap 2. "There was a lot of stuff going on, and I saw Nicky go down." Pridmore was a veteran of two Suzuka 8 Hour while his teammates were both rookies. Consequently Pridmore ended up with much of the riding chores. "My teammates have seemed to struggle a little bit here. It's made it to where I'm doing a lot of stints. I've been doing the majority of the riding; the other guys have never been here before. I think if we could have gotten 2: 14s out of those guys, we might have jumped up a few spots." Though Pridmore ran 119 laps compared to 89 laps from his two teammates, Pridmore kept his cool. "I was just real careful. I made sure that when I passed people, I gave them plenty of room. That's what you have to do in this race. People get tired from the heat and humidity and make a lot of mistakes. You have to really watch what you do out there and make smart passes." Adam Fergusson and Anthony Gobert ®@ Jordan Szoke and Paul Young 8th Overall Corona Extra Suzuki's Adam Fergusson and Anthony Gobert had a quick bike in practice, qualifying, and in the one-iap qualifying Special Stage, but the engine in that bike blew up two hours before the start of the race. "[The new engine] was a lot slower than what we had, but it survived, and we finished the race," said Fergusson. "We were down, I don't know, 15 or 20 hp. Down about 10 mph down the straights, too. It made our job quite a bit harder." For Gobert the 8 Hour represented a way to restart his racing career after the bust·up with the Ducati Austin team earlier in the year. As the race went on, much of Gobert's old form returned. "In the first part, I just didn't want to crash. I was being real cautious," said Gobert. "I came in, and Paul Young said the times he was doing were a second and a half quic~er than me. I said, 'All right, can't have that.' .I actually had an A·tire, and every time I had an A-tire the bike didn't work for me. The A-tires are smaller diameter and lower in the back, so the bike doesn't .steer. My first stint would be my worst. I just wanted to get through the first one. Then I did some 2: 12s and some good times in the second stint. I upped my pace a second', nearly two seconds a lap. So I felt good. Then in the ·third stint I got a bad tire.. I struggled the whole way. I thought it was going flat or something. It was just a bad tire. The next stint, the last stint, the tire was an old one that Crusty [Fergusson) had, and that was way better. Then I was back on the gas again, and it felt good." 9th Overall Corona Extra Suzuki's Jordan Szoke and Paul Young raced in the Super Production class in a mission to avenge their thlrd-in-c1ass finish from last year with a class victory. The mission ended with another third·in·class finish. "I hate this race - but I'll be back next year," said Szoke. "I started the race today - and 1 almost finished today, too, in the first lap." he added about the oil incident at the start. "It was chaos - J can't even explain it. I made my way up to fourteenth on the first lap, which was awesome. And, then three guys fall in front of me - boom, boom, boom· and, 'Uh oh, I'm next.' 'The front end tucked, and I saved it. I don't know how i saved it, dude. Just luck, I guess. For ten laps it was real slippery in there." In midrace Szoke had his second big moment of the race in an incident with a backmarker at the Hairpin. "I actually got T·boned. I was passing a lapped rider going in to the Hairpin. I go to tip it in, and some guy drove in to me. I don't know how I saved that one, too. I got lucky today. He hit the tail section and bJew out our whole underside, which has the brake light on it, the taillight. We had to make a long pit stop and fix that," Australian Paul Young picked up his racecraft considerably during the race, his first at Suzuka. "My last two sessions I actually got to where i knew where I was going around. I was charging pretty hard and making good work of the back markers," said Young. "In my third session I came up behind a bike. I was trying to think· I didn't know how to identify the riders and the bikes from our class, the SP class. I come up behind this bike, and I'm stuck behind him. Then I passed' him, pissed off. It's only now in the podium ceremony that I realize it was the Phase One team that won the class. The last stint was longer than what I was suppose to do, and I ran out of gas on the last lap, halfway around. I nursed it around." In the ended Szoke tried to put it all in perspective. "We were lucky to finish third (in class), but we are disappointed because we earned first. I'm really disappointed, and I'm so mad right now. But you got to be happy about finishing the 8 Hour and finishing third, I guess." 1] Warwick Nowland and Stephane Mertens DNF Zongshen l's Warwick Nowland and Stephane Mertens had won four out of the five previous rounds and led the championship by 34 points coming to Suzuka. Nowland started the race and, like many starters, had his scare with the oil incident. "I felt (the oil), because I lost the front and thought I was crashing, but was lucky I didn't fall all the way down," Nowland said. "I was quite lucky, actually." Later in the race during Mertens' second ride the frame broke on their GSX·RIOOO. "In my second stint, suddenly the frame, where the shock absorber reaches the chassis, that part of the chassis broke suddenly in the middle of a corner," Mertens said. "It was very hard for me to control the bike. I came back to the pits, but unfortunately there is nothing we could do." ®®® Doug Polen and Yoshiyuki Sugai DNF Team Moto·liberty's Doug Polen and Yoshiyukr Sugar had a strong but short run. The race was Doug Polen's r.e·entry into the world after an extended stay in the hospital to correct an aneurysm local to his pancreas that nearly cost him his life. Polen started the race, and quick reactions saved him from meeting up with the oil on the track. "As soon as I already saw people going off and the oil flag and friggin' clouds of smoke and people tumbling, I said, 'Time to head to the curb.' I stayed way to the right of the normal line." Over the first hour Polen's Honda developed a pronounced engine vibration that made riding almost unbearable. "There was a lot of vibration in the handlebars. It happened a little bit on Friday, and in the race it got worse and worse. My hands were dead asleep when I got off. The engine was getting worse, but r was getting better. As the fuel loa.d got lighter, the bike got faster - except for the vibration. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. It was pretty good. I wa.s up to fifth· and not a BS fifth, a solid fifth. It got worse and worse when my teammate was riding. Finally smoke out of the exhaust pipe." eye. e n e _ S • AUGUST 20, 2003 29

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