ROAD RACe
Yoshimura Suzuki riders Atsus hi
Watanabe and Yukio Kagayama finished
second , one lap behind Ukawa and
lzutsu's tota l o f 209 . It was Yoshimura's
first podium since 1988 and capped a
weekend
full
of
tributes
for
Yoshimura's 50th-anniversary year.
"Things worked out good the entire
weekend," Watanabe said. "It 's regretful to have come second and not win,
38
Round S
July 24, 2004
~
FIM World Endura nce Championshi p Series
but it's my best result in the 8 Hours ,
and that's goo d."
president
Fujio
Yoshimura
Yoshimura said: "It fee ls great, but I'm
st ill not satisfied that we lost the first
place . Maybe we will make that up next
year."
The Honda DD Boys team of
Toshiyuki Hamaguchi an d Shogo
Moriwaki finished third , inheriting the
AUGUST 11,200 4 • CYCLE NEWS
last podium position after the engine in
the Kenz Suzuki of Keiichi Kitagawa and
Katsuak i Fujiwara gave off a plume of
blue smoke two hou rs fro m the end
whi le running a solid third . The team
was shown the black nag for the blue
smoke but failed to leave the track
promptly and was given a $500 fine.
Reaching the podium was a fortunate twist of fate for Moriwaki , as the
40th Anniversary
2 I-year-old 8 Hours rookie is the
grandson of the late Hideo "Pops"
Yoshimura and the nephew of Fujio
Yoshimura.
"T he person who is most happy with
my resu lts is my grandmother,"
Moriwaki said .
The pod ium ceremony was rich with
remem brance. Pictures were he ld high
on the podium of the legendary Pops,
the late GP star Daijiro Kato, an d of the
DD Boys' test rider w ho lo st his life
just weeks befo re the 8 Hours in a private test session for the team at Ti circu it.
In the race-withi n-a-race for the
Worl d Endurance Championshi p, the
Yamaha GMT-94 team o f David Checa,
Sebastian Gimb e rt an d William Coste s
extended its lead over the closest challe nge r, CastroI Suzuk i, fro m tw o to 14
po ints w ith two ro unds remaining after
an eighth-overall- and-th ird-in -c1ass finish. The CastroI Suzuki team of Vincen t
Phillippe, Shawn Giles an d O livie r Four
were side lined I 'f, ho urs into the race
after Australian su pe rbike ace Giles
(th en in seventh place) was rammed
from be hind whi le braking for t he
Hairpin.
T he two highest-finishing Yamaha
teams we re, in fact , ove rseas entries.
T he Yamaha Aust ria team o f Horst
Saiger, James Ellison and Igor Je rman
trawled around and finished 13th, 15
se conds ahead of the o fficial facto ry
team o f Shinichi Nak ato mi and Watu ru
Yo shikawa .
