Wayne Gardner and Michael Doohan rode an OKI-sponsored Honda RVF750 to victory in the wet and wild Coca-Cola Suzuki 8-Hour endurance race. Kevin Magee and Doug Chandler had to settle for second after Magee rode their Nescafe Yamaha YZF750 off the track three-quarters into the race and fell over. Magee quickly remounted but the Yamaha needed repairs to the shift linkage which cost the team two laps. Third place was claimed by Carl Fogarty and Steve Hislop who rode Alex Vieira’s 1989 Honda RVF750 with Ajinomoto sponsorship.

With Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey, John Kocinki and defending Champion Eddie Lawson electing to stay away this year, Gardner and Doohan looked like a shoe-in to win, their only real challenge in timed qualifying coming from Daryl Beattie and Shinichi Itoh on a Pentax-sponsored, HRC-backed 1991 Honda RVF750. But a typhoon slowly moved towards Japan during the weekend bringing periods of heavy rain and setting the stage for anything-can-happen racing.

The Suzuka 8-Hour is the closest thing in road racing to an All Star game. Grand Prix rider Doug Chandler was the best American in attendance and was almost joined by another American – Tom Kipp – on the podium, but unfortunately Kipp, with third place secured, crashed the Yoshimura Suzuki 25 minutes before the end of the race. “I can’t say enough about the Yoshimura crew, they’re just a fantastic group of people,” said Kipp. “The Suzuki motorcycle we’re on is just a rocketship – it’s really fast and it handles well.” Added Chandler, “He did real good. I think he’ll be riding a Yosh bike next year.”

American Surprise Number two was John Choate, who teamed with Andrew Stroud from New Zealand on a Kaepa-sponsored Honda RC30. Stroud and Choate barely qualified for a race, but rode flawlessly to finish 13th - a remarkable achievement and a Cinderella story for Choate.

Suzuka veteran Dale Quarterley and Rich Arnaiz teamed up to ride a Sankyu Honda RC30, but the Honda somehow lost its balance while Arnaiz was on it and both bike and rider crashed in the double-right-hand turn after the hairpin.
Jamie James and Thomas Stevens were supposed to co-ride a Misswa-sponsored Yamaha OW01; James though, crashed the bike while testing it at Suzuka a week before the race and broke his collarbone. Larry Schwarzbach was flown in to replace James, and Schwarzbach joined John Choate in jumping into the deep end of the pool. Stevens qualified the Yamaha well, with a time as fast as any non-factory-supported team, but crashed early in the race and things went downhill from there.

Jimmy Adamo failed to qualify the Ducati 851 he was brought over to ride, the Ducati some 10 seconds off the pace.
Daytona winner Miguel DuHamel finished 12th on a new Kawasaki ZXR-7 co-ridden with Alex Vieira. “They’ve got a good engine in the bike, and suspension wise it seems to do okay. Chassis is our problem, you’ve got to get them working right – I think we’ve got it pretty close,” said DuHamel.

The Red Army of Ducati Superbikes was also at Suzuka, ridden by Raymond Roche and Giancarlo Falappa on one team and Stephane Mertens and Davide Tardozzi on the other. The effort was only partially supported by the Ducati factory; the engines and swingarms (featuring quick change wheel hardware) came from Italy, the chassis were production SP3 items supplied by the Japanese sponsor. The Ducati was a thrift store effort, undertaken to get a firsthand idea of how much work would be needed to mount an all-out attack to win Suzuka in 1992. To that end the team ran an 888cc motor in one bike and a 920cc in the other to see how long they would last. Both bikes had top end that was nearly equal to the Honda RVF, but neither finished: Mertens crashed early, injuring his hip, and the cam belt broke in the other after 6 hours, 45 minutes.

“We are not ready for this race,” lamented Marco Luchinelli. “We want to try for experience. Next year we try again. We are not experienced with pit stop, for example. (We decide to race Suzuka) eight weeks ago today. We don’t have a lot of time. We would like to make Polen-Roche and Mertenz-Tardozzi, but we have tire problem – one is Dunlop, one is Michelin, and one is Pirelli – it’s a big problem.”

Big problems were also with the factory Suzuki teams of Dominique Sarron and Jean-Michel Mattioli, and Herve Moineau and Patrick Igoa. Both teams were 2.0 to 3.0 seconds off the pace of the Honda RVF bikes in timed qualifying, and in retrospect, that turned out to be the only bright spot for the official Suzuki factory endurance teams. In the race Igoa collided with Beattie early on, wrecking that Suzuki, and Sarron got a terrible start, running 33rd after one lap. Sarron eventually pushed up to 11th during the first hour, but when Mattioli went out on the bike the engine just stopped. The two bikes, numbered 3 and 4, finished third and fourth worst out of 60 starters.

The factory Suzuki endurance teams were completely upstaged by the Yoshimura Suzukis of Tom Kipp and Masano Aoki, and Steve Martin and Matt Blair, the latter from Australia and both having some difficulty adapting to the high-strung Yoshimura GSXR, even after five weeks of testing before Suzuka. “It’s different riding styles,” said Blair, “the bike’s set up to the way Schwantz used to ride it, I mean, there’s not many people in the world who can ride a motorcycle like Schwantz can, you know, especially the way he’s got it set up, it’s hard for us.” Added Martin, “I’m just starting; like I can actually ride it like Schwantz, sort of, not as fast, obviously, but go in, pitch it, and then get out. But I’m also doing the same thing as Schwantz used to do – crash it. I’m not as fast as Schwantz, but if I’m in the lead I crash it.”

The factory Yamaha Endeavor had Magee and Chandler (the Californian had just six hours on a YZF before Suzuka) on the lead bike, Niall Machenzie and Peter Goddard on another YZF, and Norihiko Fujiwara and Yasutomo Nagai on a third YZF. The Japanese riders were fast but went off course too much, dropping out the race after two hours. Mackenzie and
Goddard crashed with even greater frequency and will probably star in the next Havoc video.

The tastiest of the factory bikes were the Honda RVFs of Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan, and Daryl Beattie and Shinichi Itoh – not the fast on top end, that belonged to the Yamaha YZFs, but certainly the lightest and the best handling. After the fuel mileage mis-calculation last year that cost Honda the race, new people were brought in to support Doohan and Gardner. “It’s a French endurance team,” said Gardner, “they’re a very, very good team.”

And what a team they turned out to be. In official timed qualifying Mick Doohan put the team OKI Honda bike on the pole with a time of 2:13.925. In Gardner’s session his best was a 2:15.150; privately he confided that if needed he and Doohan could get the bike in the 12s. Bold words, and probably true – in one of the night non-qualifying practice sessions Gardner and Doohan recorded a 2:13.863 on the Suzuka timing system.

The reference by Gardner to the possible to the possible need to go faster alluded to the threat from Daryl Beattie. Beattie came oh-so-close to getting the pole, his best time a 2:14.058, and Beattie’s teammate Itoh was not far off the pace with a 2:14.910. Ironically, Beattie receives coaching and advisement on a formal basis from Gardner’s teammate Doohan.

Third fastest in timed qualifying was another Honda RVF, this one belonging to a private Japanese team, rider Kenichiroh Iwahashi recording a 2:14.359.

Fastest Yamaha was the YZF of Fujiwara and Nagai (2:14.851). Magee and Chandler were the next fastest YZF (2:15.270), followed by Mackenzie and Goddard (2:15.361).

“The qualifying here – I never really tried for a lap time,” said Chandler. “I was just shooting for a race speed and to do those times consistently. I wanted to do a good lap but in the last session it was kinda wet so I saved it for the race.”

Faster than factory Kawasakis, Suzukis and Ducatis was a Honda RC30 of Tetsuya Shirai and Katsuyoshi Kozono at 2:15.926 – a full 2.0 seconds back from the factory Hondas.

Michael Dowson ran a 2:15.946 for the best Kawasaki, teammate Aaron Slight, the new Australian Superbike champion, not getting along as well at 2:17.235.
The best Suzuki was the Yoshimura of Martin and Blair, Blair the faster of the two at 2:16.515.

The best of the foreign bikes – the Ducatis – belonged to Roche and Falappa, the reigning World Superbike Champion pedalling an 888 around Suzuka at 2:19.196.

The second most popular motorcycle at Suzuka, right behind the Honda RC30, was the Moriwaka Zero WX7. In qualifying the best Moriwaka posted a 2:16.781 and was ridden by Kazuyoshi Taneoka – a true kamikaze rider who says to himself, “time to attack,” as he puts on his helmet, and keeps a logbook of all his crashes (so far he as recorded over 150!). The Moriwaka is powered by a Honda RC30 motor, all together 33 out of the 60 starters at Suzuka had Honda engines in their bikes.

The rain at the start of the race on Sunday was of no real surprise; a cracking thunderstorm passed through on Friday night and the 4-Hour race on Saturday was postponed two hours because of heavy showers. Doohan led away from the Le Mans start, but Fujiwara and the YZF swept by the Honda in the Esses. The Yoshimura Suzuki ridden by Aoki also passed Doohan on the first lap. Chandler was fourth after the first lap, then came Miyazaki (Honda RVF), Dowson, Sohwa (Kaw ZXR-7), Mackenzie, Beattie, Igoa, and DuHamel.

Beattie’s impressive Suzuka performance was scuttled on the second lap in a tangle with Igoa. “I saw Igoa crash,” said DuHamel later, “I was right behind him, I was catching up. Igoa was going up the inside of the Dunlop Curve and I think Beattie didn’t see him because he just shut the door right on him, and they both hit and Igoa went down, naturally, and at the same time Beattie just slid off the corner. I’m not sure but I think beattie didn’t see him because if he did he would have not slammed the door that way.” The crash cost Beattie four laps and Igoa nine laps.
Fujiwara held the lead at the end of the two laps, Miyazaki went past Chandler and Dowson was now following Sohwa and Mackenzie.

Doohan passed Aoki on lap three and closed to within 2.6 seconds of Fujiwara; farther back on the same lap Downson lost a spot to DuHamel.

Doohan put a pass on Fijuwara in Spoon Curve on lap four, but the YZF slingshot past the RVF on the back straight to allow Fujiwara to be the first to complete four laps.

Doohan countered at Dunlop Curve and out-rode his Japanese rival to put the Honda officially in the lead at the end of lap five. Fujiwara was 2.9 seconds back and looked vulnerable to being passed by Aoki, the Suzuki 0.2 seconds behind the Yamaha.

Fujiwara was passed on lap six, not by Aoki but by Miyazaki to make it Honda first and second. Parts of the track were now drying off slightly and Doohan was pulling away while Chandler fighting to hold onto eighth. Mertens crashed on this lap, as did Thomas Stevens.

Miyazaki was close enough to Doohan to fool himself into trying to match the pace. The effort emphasized how good Doohan is: the leading Honda gliding around Suzuka, the chasing Honda sliding around Suzuka.

Doohan caught the first backmarkers on lap eight, and fifth-place Mackenzie crashed but was up quickly to re-join the action in 13th.

DuHamel was riding brilliantly, steadily gaining positions and his was the first Kawasaki. “For awhile there I was fourth, and I was going to pass the third but the tire destroyed itself.”

The rain subsided by the 10th lap and a dry line was developing around most of the course. First of the front runners to change to cut slicks was Miyazaki on lap 11. Dowson came in on lap 12, Chandler and Hislop on lap 13, and Aoki, Sohwa and DuHamel on lap 14. Doohan’s lead was now greater than 30 seconds over second-place Fujiwara, both still racing on rain tires. After all the pitting Chandler was third, one minute back from Doohan, Blair was fourth, Tsurata (Kaw ZXR750R) fifth, followed by Aoki and Miyazaki.

“One of the big problems here,” explained Dunlop’s Dave Watkins, “is that there is no drainage of water.” This caused not only problems with tire selection but riding styles as well. “With the little rivers runnin’ across Dunlop and Spoon, stated Chandler, “you’d get in there on intermediates and have it hunkered over and the thing would just go into a full-lock drift.”

Chandler went straight to work on his new tires, chopping Doohan’s lead by 7.0 seconds every lap. By lap 18 Chandler controlled second, 39.7 seconds back from Doohan. Next lap the interval was 32.0 seconds, then 24.8, then 18.3, then 12.2, then 5.7 seconds. On the 24th lap Doohan was sliding all over the track as Chandler was ready to gun down the Honda. Just as Chandler pulled alongside Doohan before the chicane, Doohan ducked onto pit rode to avoid the humiliation of following the big, black YZF around Suzuka.

“I was in the lead, the (pit crew) guys didn’t even know who was behind me for a while and it started to get like 40 seconds ahead and it stayed like that for a while,” said Doohan. “We were pretty lucky with the rain. I was a little but surprised how this track holds water. There was little rivers running everywhere and that’s (the reason) why half the people who crashed out there –the track is so inconsistent from the rain.”

Gardner took over from Doohan, the race now one hour old. The pit stop by the OKI Honda allowed Miyazaki to move up to second, almost 30 seconds behind Chandler. Gardner re-entered the race in third, 20 seconds behind Miyazaki. Other teams, (in order), that were on the lead lap were Aoki/Kipp (Suz), Sohwa/Tsuruta (Kaw), Goddar/Mackenzie (Yam), Viera/DuHamel (Kaw), Fujiwara/Nagai (Yam), Dowson/Slight (Kaw), Fogarty/Hislop (Hon), Sarron/Mattioli (Suz) and Taneoka/Giles (Mor).

The running order stayed this way until lap 30, when Chandler pitted to hand the bike over to Magee. New tires were put on again, this time true slicks front and rear. The Yamaha team lost two positions during the stop, allowing Miyazaki to take the lead and Gardner to move up to second.

The privateer Honda RVF was losing ground, though, to the efforts of Gardner and Gagee. On lap 31 Gardner was 12 behind Miyazaki, Magee another second back and matching Gardner’s pace exactly. On lap 32 Gardner closes to within 9.9 seconds, next lap, 7.4 seconds, next lap, 6.6 seconds; next lap, 3.6 seconds.

Magee drafted pass both Gardner and Miyazaki down the back straight on the 36th lap. Miyazaki pitted at the end of this lap for fuel, rider change and new tires. Within a few laps after pitting Miyazaki’s co-rider, Iwahashi, had the Honda back up to third.

Magee went and firmed up his head over the next 10 laps to where his advantage was 10 seconds over Gardner on lap 46.

Then the rains came again, starting first on the back sections such as Spoon Curve.

Magee pitted on lap 48 to get rid of the slicks, losing the lead to Gardner. Farther back, Goddard, who had taken over fourth place on lap 45, was gaining on Iwahashi and would pass him for third on lap 49.

Gardner brought the Honda in for wet tires on lap 50, and handed the bike back to Doohan. The race was now two hours old, and the number of riders still on the lead lap besides Gardner/Doohan were Magee/Chandler (Yam), Goddard/MacKenzie (Yam), Miyazaki/Iwahashi (Hon) and Aoki/Kipp (Suz). One lap down were Fujiwara/Nagai (Yam), Dowson/Slight (Kaw), Kitagawa/Tsuruta (Kaw) and Fogarty/Hislop (Hon).

Due to the pit stop by Gardner, Magee reclaimed the lead on lap 51, but Doohan passed his countryman in the Esses on lap 52 and had pulled ahead by just over 10 seconds at the completion of the lap. On lap 53 Magee pitted for better rain tires and returned the Yamaha to Chandler. Iwahashi as now back up to third and Goddard was fourth.

Goddard nearly crashed away his fourth place spot on lap 54 when he lost control in the left-hand turn at the end of the back straight. “The straight was dry,” explained Goddard. “I got to the corner and it was raining on the corner and that corner had been dry the whole time. I looked up, the screen was clean, no rain, and that corner was rain. I was lucky it (the crashed Yamaha) went from tank to wheel to tank to wheel, didn’t damage it too much. Picked it up and it started – I was amazed it was still in one piece.” Goddard got up and going again, still holding onto fourth.

The course now was overwhelmed with rain and visibility so poor that race officials put out the “LIGHTS ON” display.
On lap 58 Blair crashed one of the Yoshimura Suzukis and, ironically, it caught on fire. Blair did his best to put the fire out, scooping water and mud out of nearby puddles. “It’s a bit of a pisser,” said Blair afterwards about the crash.
Chandler was behind Doohan almost a full minute when he rejoined the action and fought the desire to chase Doohan down versus riding his own race.

“I nearly dumped it a dozen times and just myself to quit, back off, back off – just ride this thing, just finish your session,” said Chandler. “I was amazed we actually made time in this session ‘cause I felt like I was riding like goofin’ around. I just ran a pace – I wanted to stay just consistent and if I needed to gas it up I’d have a little more. I felt all day that the bike was really good.”

On lap 71 the race was three hours old. Doohan’s lead was down to 28 seconds ahead of Chandler. The Honda RVF of Miyazaki and Iwahashi was third, 1:28 behind Chandler. The last bike on the lead bike was fourth place Goddard/Mackenzie. One lap down were Aoki/Kipp, Fogarty/Hislop and Kitagawa/Tsuruta.

The third place Miyazaki/Iwahashi Honda RVF crashed in Degner Curve on lap 72. The team re-entered the race after an 11-minute pit stop, eight laps down from the leaders. Chandler handed the Yamaha back to Magee on lap 77, just as the rain was coming to an end. Doohan pitted five laps later. By lap 84 the track was starting to develop a dry line.

Magee pulled to within 4.0 seconds of Gardner, where things stabilized and the two riders just clicked off laps. Goddard held third and there was still on the lead lap but a long ways back – in track position he was just ahead of Gardner, about to get lapped. “I had a lot of trouble figuring out what the race pace was, so I was trying to make up ground all the time,” said Goddard.

The race reached the halfway point on lap 93, with Gardner 4.0 seconds ahead of Magee. Goddard was third, two minutes back and the only rider still on the lead lap. The Yoshimura Suzuki of Aoki and Kipp was fourth, one lap down. Two laps down were Kitagawa and Tsuruta, Fogarty and Hislop, and Dowson and Slight.

“We had the same complications as every else, with the weather,” said Slight. “In the dry it’s fine.”

Magee brought the Yamaha into the pits on lap 101. Chandler set off after Gardner, now leading by about half a lap.
On lap 102 Goddard tried to elbow past 11th place Alex Vieira at Spoon Curve, the Yamaha rider going up the inside, making contact with the Kawasaki and causing both to low-side off the track. Goddard kept both hands on the handlebars the entire time, picked up the YZF immediately and left the scene of the accident while Vieira was still sliding.
Most of the finger pointing was at Goddard for this, and DuHamel was especially frustrated. “Going through Spoon Curve, Alex was just doing his normal line. Goddard got in real hot, real close. Alex picked it up a bit and it looks like Goddard just hit the brakes and crashed. Alex was right beside him and hand nowhere to go. It took us a lot of time to put it back together (the Kawasaki had a broken footpeg and bent levers). It was pretty bad, if that didn’t happen I think we would be easy top five, maybe fourth or third. I mean, with the other people having bad luck and stuff and we were running a pretty serious pace towards the end. The main thing is to keep it up and go as fast as you can with the set-up you’ve got, and that’s what I did.”

Like an insurance company, Goddard was feeling that Vieira was partly to blame for the accident since he was there for Goddard to hit. “I was past him, I was on a different line and he didn’t stand it up as I went under him, but I was committed to the corner ‘cause I was on my wets and they were just diabolical and I couldn’t change directions quick. I guess he was in the same boat, but he could have stood it up. He was going much slower than me and we hit and that was the end of that.”

The Goddard-Vieira incidence allowed the Aoki/Kipp Suzuki to move up to third, Fogarty and Hislop went up to fourth and Kitagawa and Tsuruta were fifth.

The OKI Honda team switched riders on lap 108. Doohan re-entered the track just in front of Chandler, who swept past the Australian through the Esses. At the end of lap 109 Chandler’s lead was 0.178 seconds.

Chandler tried his best to pull an advantage on Doohan and was ahead 3.4 seconds on lap 111. After that the lead shrunk every lap. Elsewhere on the track the Kitagawa/Tsuruta Kawasaki overtook the Fogarty/Hislop Honda.
Doohan took revenge on Chandler on lap 116 with a pass in the Esses. Chandler hung onto Doohan and drafted past the Honda across the Start/Finish line at the beginning of lap 117. Like the lap before, doohan took control away from Chandler through the Esses.

“I got a really good draft,” said Chandler. “Doohan didn’t get out of the chicane as well as I had and I had a good run on him, but he had a little newer tires so he’d get me through the Esses. I didn’t even bother to even try to chase him. I was content – Kevin would get (him).”

At the end of lap 117 – the five-hour mark of the race – 0.624 seconds separated first-place Doohan and second-place Chandler. Two laps down were Aoki/Kipp, Kitagawa/Tsuruta and Fogarty/Hislop. Three laps down were Dowson/Slight and four laps down was Sogwa/Tsukamoto and Beattie/Itoh, who have been on pace with the leaders since their early crash and had moved up 44 positions in four hours. In ninth place, five laps down, was the Roche/Falappa Ducati. Out of the picture was the Goddard/Mackenzie Yamaha, the bike crashed for the fourth or fifth time depending on who you asked.

“(We) bent the swingarm,” said Goddard, “and the chain ate the sprocket. We had to change the swingarm, that was a long pit stop – we lost 10 laps.”

Doohan pulled away slowly from Chandler over the next 10 laps and when Chandler went on pit road on lap 127 Doohan’s lead was 5.6 seconds. Doohan had 54 seconds on Magee when the Yamaha came back out, and Magee cut this down to 43 seconds when Doohan pitted on lap 134. And 43 seconds is almost exactly the amount of time a lap is extended when a pit stop goes as planned.

But this pit stop did not come off as planned. A new rear slick was put on the RVF and a cut front slick up front. Before the front wheel was fully in position the Honda dropped off the pneumatic jacks; by the time everything was sorted out and Gardner was on his way the Oki Honda went from being 43 seconds ahead to 28 seconds behind. Gardner rode hard to catch Magee yet Magee continued to pull away at the rate of 1.0-second a lap.

The race reached the six-hour point on lap 143, Magee ahead of Gardner by 31 seconds. Three laps down were Aoki/Kipp, Kitagawa/Tsuruta and Fogarty/Hislop. One lap further back were Sohwa/Tsukamoto. Five laps down were seventh and eighth place Dowson/Slight and Beattie/Itoh. Crine/Morrison and Roche/Falappa were ninth and 10th, six laps behind the leaders.

On lap 145 Magee entered the Esses and started wobbling, each excursion greater than the previous one until he rode off the track.

“What happened, and the way Doug and I got it set up between us, it’s a bit softer in the back than what I’m used to. I rode it hard, got a quick one in the dry and I was starting to flick it, and it kicked back which gave me kind of a fright – spin, bang, bang. I just couldn’t keep it up in the grass but there was some gravel and I couldn’t get it turned, and that was that. Then, I kept it goin’, got it up, reasonably quick, got goin’ again. I didn’t to get in people’s way so I was trying to ride on the grass. Like some of the guys, they’re trying to get back to their pits, are really dangerous. I was just going to ride it on the grass until I got down to somewhere in Degner (Curve). I lowsided in the grass. If I hadn’t done that we’d still probably have the race in our hands.”

Gardner, of course, picked up the lead during this but never noticed the shipwrecked Yamaha when he went by. And 10 laps later Magee had to pit for replacement of the shit linkage damaged in the fall, meanwhile, Gardner, uncertain of what was going on, was riding harder than ever.

“I was 25 or 30 seconds behind and I was chasing hard, ‘cause the mechanics made a mistake in the pits and put us a long ways behind. I was just rying to pace myself to him (Magee) and maybe pull him in a few seconds. Then I came around and it (the pit board) said, ‘+2, 2 LAPS), and I thought, ‘What’s this all about?’ It had my lap time up there and I was in 16s and 17s and I was riding as hard as I could and then I saw, ‘2 LAPS’, and my lap times and I didn’t understand it. Then it said, ‘+2’ and I thought it was 2.0-seconds so I looked around to see if I could see anyone. I started to ride faster and faster and I kept looking behind me – 2.0 seconds, 2.0 seconds. I didn’t see anybody so I thought it must be two laps and I was really curious. I thought, ‘Let’s keep going at a good pace, just in case,’ so I kept circulating at 18s and 19s. Then I came in and heard that Kevin bagged it and we’re two laps in the lead. I said, ‘Thank Christ for that, that I didn’t fall off.’”

While this was going on the Fogarty/Hislop Honda overtook the Kitagawa/Tsuruta Kawasaki on lap 148. On lap 155 the cam belt broke on the Roche/Falappa Ducati which allowed the Honda RC ridden by Jun Maeda and Keiji Tamura to move up to 10th. Eight laps later the Vieira/DuHamel Kawasaki caught the RC30 to take over 10th.

On lap 166 the race entered its final hour, Doohan two laps ahead of Magee. In third, three laps down was the Yoshimura Suzuki of Aoki/Kipp. Four laps down were Fogarty/Hislop, Kitagawa/Tsuruta and Sohwa/Tsukamoto. Five laps back and still in seventh and eight places were Dowson/Slight and Beattie/Itoh.

Just 25 minutes from the end the sure and steady third place Yoshimura Suzuki was dropped by Kipp as he entered the Hairpin on lap 178.

“There’s a real fast kink going into the Hairpin. There’s a crack in the track and there was apparently some water on the
track. It was just starting to go dark, I just jumped on the bike. I didn’t realize there was an intermediate front (tire) on the bike. We made a decision to kinda make up some time and just to change the rear wheel and not the front. It was my fault. I didn’t look at the front. It was a real heartbreaker. These guys have worked so hard the last couple of weeks.”’
And, as the Aussies are fond of saying, that was that. Gardner took the checkered flag on lap 192. Altogether 41 teams were still on the track when the race ended.

“In 1981, the first time I came here, I felt we had a good chance then with the Moriwaki team,” said Gardner. “I’ve nearly won it many times, and I’ve won it twice before so to win it now on the 10th anniversary as such – it’s a lot of pressure. I felt we had a good chance last year but we had a few mistakes. The boke worked really well, the RVF Honda. Mick rode a superb race and I think it’s a good team. It’s very very nice to win. It’s a long, hard race.”

Kevin Magee finished riding for the Nescafe team and was delighted to finally having one of the factories behind him 100 percent and felt no need to be down on himself for riding off the course earlier in the race.

“I was still just settlin’ in a bit. You reckon how much riding I’ve done in the last 18 months and you could see me smiling through my visor,” said Magee.

Chandler, too, was pleased with the result.

“We really thought we had a good chance at winning, and we did. We were up front with the Honda all day long. The bike was good the whole race. I did it, the Suzuka 8-Hour, figuring to get more track time. That’s why I wanted to do this race, to help me out on the 500 machine.

Steve Hislop persevered with the three-year-old Honda RVF to finish third. Both Hislop and Fogarty felt luck had a lot to do with their strong finish.

“It was used, the same RVF, as the (Isle of Man) TT,” said Hislop, the record holder at Isle of Man. “This is the first time I’ve used it on a short circuit and it’s really good. Suzuka gets harder every year, and I think the quality of the field this year is just great. I’m pleased just to finish.”

“We’re lucky to finish third, it’s great,” said Fogarty. “Things went well in practice, we got used to the bike. We knew we had a good chance, but we just didn’t get enough time to practice. We came off pretty good, we gambled right most of the time so it’s not too bad.”

Pretty good? Not too bad? A modest assessment of a superb achievement in what the Japanese factories consider the biggest road race of the year.

Postcard From Japan: Where Racing is Normal
By Tracy Hagen

Road racing events are a microcosm, a small society in themselves. In the U.S. these events are often largely a gathering of perceived social misfits (e.g., Daytona or Loudon) but in Japan, where motorcycles are a big part of the culture, the races represent a celebration of values rather than a weekend of hell raising.
When the spotlight is on a road racer in Japan they are given the same respect that Americans bestow to the Olympic greats such as Bruce Jenner or Mark Spitz. I don’t know what the first thing about figure skating, but when I see Katarina Witt on TV I can tell she has practiced a lot. The Japanese are able to see the same when they watch road racing.
An Hour after the Suzuka 8-Hour ended a crowd of at least 20,000 (could have been twice that, it was huge) that had gathered in the grandstands and on the front straight and straight and pit road started chanting, “Gardner, Gardner, Gardner …”
The fans turn out in large numbers for the Suzuka 8-Hour; supposedly the 1990 event drew 360,000 over several days. For me, the most surprising sight is seeing pairs of young girls coming to the races and then leaving at the end of the day carrying bags of souvenirs.
The Suzuka 8-Hour is like our Tournament of Roses parade. The spectators come because they want to see something that they know will make them feel good. Except for Team Lucky Strike Suzuki from France, there are no teams in the 8-Hour back by cigarette money and I can’t ever recall seeing a Marlboro float in the Rose Parade. Spectators were streaming in by the tens of thousands the evening before the 8-Hour in order to sleep in the spot they wanted to watch the race from. That’s the same with the Rose Parade.
The famous Umbrella Girls are more or less the same as cheerleaders, Vanna White, or any other woman hired because of her looks and the ability to attract attention. They appear sexist to Americans but are photographed by both men and women in Japan (I’ll admit there were more men, though).
Network TV in America always asks the riders, in one form or another, “Why race motorcycles?” In Japan, the racing of motorcycles is not questioned.
What a delight it is to be someplace where those who don’t enjoy motorcycle racing are the social misfits.


Around Suzuka with Dominique Sarron

Suzuka is an unique circuit with a figure-eight layout. Corners are named, not numbered and are called Curves, not Turns. Team Lucky Strike Suzuki Rider Dominique Sarron, a two-time Suzuka 8-Hour winner, describes the course.
“Suzuka is very technical. Long straights, series of corners, fast bends, a really tight hairpin. It really tests a rider, lap after lap. On the front straight, I shift to sixth around the end of the pit lane. I think I’m doing between 160 and 170 mph. I brake hard for the first part of the first curve, which I go through in third gear (Point A). The second half of the curve is in second gear. I stay in second through the Esses Curve series (Point B) until the exit of the right-hander before Dunlop Curve (Point C) where I shift to third. Keeping a rhythm through the Esses is important.
“Out of Dunlop, I accelerate up to shift to fourth and then go back to third for the first part of Degner (Point D). I briefly accelerate until the second part of Degner which I go through in second and slow. Once out of Degner, I accelerate very quickly up to fourth gear until I reach the apex of the fast right-hand bend where I begin going all the way back to first gear for the Hairpin (Point E).
“Exiting the Hairpin, I again accelerate very quickly through second, third, and fourth through the first right-hand bend and then up to fifth for the second right bend. This first bend is one of my favorites. It’s very fast, about 125 mph. The feeling is good because you have a good sense of when the bike is sliding. When I reach Spoon (Point F), I go back to the third for the first part and then to second for the tight second part. The exit to this corner is important because it leads to the back straight. I accelerate very hard up through all the gears to sixth.
“The fast left bend (Point G) is back to fourth gear and then quickly back on the throttle on the short straight to the Chicane (Point H). It is still very difficult to see. Personally, I don’t like it very much because it is not a very technical corner, simply right, left, and open the throttle. I think, though, that Japanese riders are very good here and in other slow corners because they move very quickly on the bike, and in this chicane, you have to move quickly. Out of the Chicane, you are heading back to the front straight, accelerating and reaching fourth around the Start/Finish line.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RMrub996Tc