Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/146977
P24 IN THE WIND HONDA WINS SUZUKA, SCHWANTZ 3RD! M PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE usashi RT Harc-Pro Honda's Takumi Takahashi, Leon Haslam, and Michael Van Der Mark put together a wellmanaged race to end up on top of the box for this year's running of the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan. The Honda CBR1000RRmounted team finished with a lead of almost two minutes over Yoshimura Suzuki's Takuya Tsduda, Nobuatsu Aoki and Josh Brookes. But the team that likely got the most attention was the Team Kagayama Suzuki squad that consisted of Yukio Kagayama, Noriyuiki Haga… and Kevin Schwantz. And the three combined to finish on the podium in third place. "It's been an honor to ride again here with these talented guys," Schwantz said. "I was lucky to be with an excellent team. The Suzuki was perfect and our Dunlops helped us to stay the distance. I did my best to be fast without making a mistake." Following just shy of Team Kagayama by two seconds was the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) of Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Julien Da Costa. Although disappointed with missing the podium, SERT moves into the lead of the FIM Endurance World Championship with its effort in Japan. Two laps behind the leader in fifth place was the Yamaha France GMT 94 team. The Yamaha YART team was unable to take advantage of its pole position. Though they were in the hunt with the lead pack, a leaking engine seal forced them to pit for repairs and they rejoined the race at the halfway mark in 11th place. They would eventually climb to eighth. The FCC TSR Honda team of Jonathon Rea and Ryuichi Kiyonari was the first of the top teams to drop out of the race. Damage to the bike after Kiyonari crashed out of the lead at around the three-hour mark of the race forced them to retire. Another Suzuka 8 Hour casualty was the BMW Motorrad France team of Jason Pridmore and Erwan Nigon. The team's bad luck continued as both riders crashed in the race, the second of which, Pridmore's crash, took them out of the race. Their third team member, Damien Cudlin, was forced out of the race when he suffered a broken leg in a practice crash. STONER SET FOR HONDA TEST R Casey Stoner will throw his leg over a MotoGP bike again, but only to test. etired two-time World Champion Casey Stoner will test a Honda RC213V in Japan over the course of the next few months, fueling speculation that he will return to racing. But it's more likely that we should take the Australian on his word: That he just misses riding a MotoGP bike and wants to throw his