Honda Blitzes The Field At
2023 Suzuka 8 Hours
T
eam HRC proved unbeat-
able during the third round of
the 2023 FIM Endurance World
Championship, the 44th Coca-
Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance
Race on Sunday, August 6.
Team HRC's second straight
8 Hours victory with riders
Takumi Takahashi and Tetsuta
Nagashima and Xavi Vierge,
saw them defeat TOHO Racing
Honda (Ikuhiro Enokido, Ryuichi
Kiyonari and Takuma Kunimine)
and SDG Honda Racing (Tep
-
pei Nagoe, Haruki Noguchi and
Naomichi Uramoto), with F.C.C.
TSR Honda France (Josh Hook
Alan Techer, Mike Di Meglio)
making it a 1-2-3-4 for Honda on
home soil.
For Spanish World Superbike
rider Vierge, however, the focus
is firmly on his debut EWC win
alongside Japanese riders
Takumi Takahashi and Tetsuta
Nagashima, who recovered from
a foot injury to take part, having
not raced since April.
"For me it's amazing because
it's the first time I made this
amazing race and to get this
win just feels incredible," said
Vierge. "I need to say thank you
so much to my team and also
to my team-mates, they did an
amazing job. I learn a lot from
them during all of the week and
finally we are able to have a
good pace. It has not been easy
because in my second stint I had
the safety car and I was one of
the last in my group [when the
race restarted] and it was so dif
-
ficult to overtake without making
mistakes. And the last two hours
for them were really difficult with
the rain. But they just made the
correct decisions in every mo-
ment. It was a perfect strategy,
it's such a pleasure and I'm so
happy."
Behind Team HRC, Yoshimura
SERT Motul looked set to im
-
prove on its 2022 placing of third
WIND
IN THE
P40
The classic Le Mans start
gets the 44th Suzuka 8
Hours underway.
