Dream Honda Racing 11 dominating ahead of Yoshimura Suzuki with Denso
Honda took back their goods on their home ground and won the 2008 Coca Cola Zero Suzuka 8 Hours. Riyuichi Kiyonari and Carlos Checa took victory with a comfortable margin of one lap over the Yoshimura Suzuki with Denso of Daisaku Sakai and Atsushi Watanabe. After a fantastic end of the race, the Honda Kyubo.com Harc-Pro 73 of Yoshiteru Konishi and Takumi Takahashi took third place, four laps behind the winners.
A thirty second stop-and-go for excessive speed in the pit-lane apart, the Dream Honda Racing 11 did the perfect race. After taking the lead from the second lap, the official Honda number 11 of Ryuichi Kiyonari and Carlos Checa was then never threatened for victory.
As usual, the classis Japanese Endurance race was not short of dramatic action and many of the favourite teams were quickly eliminated. The beginning of the race was breathtaking. Kosuke Akiyoshi did the holeshot on the Yoshimura Suzuki with Jomo 34 but Ryuichi Kiyonari took the lead from the second lap on the Dream Honda Racing 11. On the FCC TSR Honda 2, Shinichi Itoh quickly moved to the front to take part of the fight for lead with Kiyonari.
First drama happened at 2 pm. Itoh crashed in his second run and took quite some time to get the FCC TSR Honda 2 back to the pits. Winner of the 2006 edition, on pole this year, this Honda was a serious contender but would not get back on track.
Just before 3 pm a thundershower came and spoilt the party. On the Yoshimura Suzuki 34, Yukio Kagayama did not miss the opportunity to take the lead over Carlos Checa on the Dream Honda Racing 11. But Kagayama was too confident on the wet track and crashed, and went back onto the race with no pit stop. He was then second behind the Honda 11 and ahead of the second Yoshimura Suzuki 12. A bit later, two crashes of Kosuke Akiyoshi on the Yoshimura Suzuki 34 took the 2007 winners definitely away from a podium this year. However, they still managed to finish fourth, ahead of the official Yamaha Racing 218.
Against the armada of official and semi-official Japanese teams, several regular permanent teams managed to score a place within the top-15, the only way to leave Suzuka with some points for the Qtel FIM World Endurance Championship. Yamaha Austria Racing Team (Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Steve Plater) did the best result with an eleventh final place. Racing with a stock engine, the team had to start the race in the middle of the pack after Steve Plater crashed.
Without any inferiority complex for a first season as a permanent team and a first participation at Suzuka, the Spanish team YMES Folch Endurance took a fantastic twelfth place with Dani Ribalta and Pedro Valcaneras. The British from Team Phase One Endurance are following them close with a thirteenth place signed by Rico Penzkofer, Scott Smart and Damian Cudlin.
Deprived of Vincent Philippe, injured at the qualifying session, and penalized by an alternator problem plus a stop-and-go for excessive speed in the pit-lane, Suzuki Endurance Racing Team finished only in fourteenth place, but are still leading the provisional World Championship.
Some other teams came to Japan but could not score a single point, despite some good racing. In the final order are Maco Moto Racing, seventeenth just ahead of Endurance Moto 38 and Diablo Bolliger 666. Raffin Motos are in twenty-ninth position; RT Racing Moto Virus ends up thirty-fifth.
The race ended up prematurely for some other teams. Bolliger Switzerland, who was then close to the top-15, lost some time after David Morillon crashed under the thunderstorm. Back on track, the Swiss Kawasaki had to retire after an engine breakdown, consequence of the earlier crash. The Fortezza Amadeus X-One was betrayed by the engine of its Yamaha at the beginning of the race. The Honda RMT-21 Racing had to leave the race after a clutch problem. Endurance Moto 74 threw the sponge and their gearbox in the meantime.
In the Superstock class, LTG 57 took the victory ahead of Qatar Endurance Racing Team IJT, who lost some ground after a puncture occurred at the beginning of the race. Endurance Moto 45 took third place on the Superstock podium ahead of ABG Performance and Runner Bike delayed after two crashes.
The next round of the 2008 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship is on August 9th in Germany for the 8 Hours of Oschersleben.
