IN
THE
WIND
P32
Pol Espargaro put the Yamaha Factory squad on pole and broke the track record.
YAMAHA FACTORY RACING
SUZUKA 8 HOUR
T
he Yamaha Factory Racing
team, with MotoGP riders
Bradley Smith and Pol Esparga-
ro and Japanese star Katsuyuki
Nakasuga, have taken the
company's first Suzuka 8 Hour
win in 19 years in a dramatic
encounter at the legendary
Japanese venue. Second place
went to the F.C.C. TSR Honda
team of Swiss Moto2 rider Domi-
nique Aegerter, Australian Josh
Hook and Brit Kyle Smith, with
Team Kagayama Suzuki (Yukio
Kagayama, Ryuichi Kiyonari and
Noriyuki Haga) in third.
The race was billed as the
largest 8 Hour for years with the
announcement Yamaha would
field MotoGP riders in their fac-
tory outfit, as well as the return
to racing of two-time MotoGP
World Champion Casey Stoner
for the MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO
team with defending 8 Hour
champion Michael van der Mark
and Takumi Takahashi.
Espargaro planted the factory
Yamaha YZF-R1 on pole with a
new circuit record of 2:06.000,
yet the team was unable to make
the most of the position as the
machine failed to fire up at the
Le Mans start in the hands of
Nakasuga. The Japanese rider
clawed his way up to sixth be-
fore handing the reigns to Espar-
garo. Meanwhile, Takahashi had
handed the number 634 Honda
to Casey Stoner, but his and the
team's race would last only five
more laps before a stuck throttle
saw the Australian crash out.
From there the race settled
into a two-way battle between
F.C.C. and Yamaha Factory
Racing, with the lead swapping
a number of times across the
remaining six hours as pit stops
played their part in the out-
come. Espargaro passed a rider
under safety car in his first stint,
meaning Smith had to come in
for a ride-through penalty which
dropped them to second, and
by the fifth hour the Yamaha
team had to push to the maxi-
PHOTOS
COURTESY
OF
YAMAHA
AND
BRIDGESTONE
