Suzuka City, Japan, Aug. 5

Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi held off a determined challenge from a fellow Honda team of Tadayuki Okada and Alex Barros to win the Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours, round 6 of the FIM Endurance World Championship. Despite the appearance of the pace car, the pair completed 217 laps, a new distance record for the event.

“I had the best teammate this year,” Edwards said about Rossi, the current 500cc World Championship points leader. “Valentino is a really splendid rider. I have been on the podium many times in the past, but being on top is something special.”

It was the second year that Edwards and Rossi raced the 8 Hours together. Last year, both Rossi and Edwards crashed in the race, and it left a bitter memory. That was erased this year with a commanding ride that saw the Italian and Texan lead 178 laps, including the final 52.

“I am the first Italian rider to win the Suzuka 8 Hours, so I am very happy,” Rossi said. “Last year, I was disappointed, so I am really happy to win the race today. This race was very important to me.”

Edwards was gushing with praise for Rossi.

“Valentino rode great. That’s the one thing I want to stress is that Valentino rode an unbelievable race.”

Second-placed Okada and Barros were unlucky twice in the race: Okada fell in the second hour while negotiating the chicane, but rider and machine sustained only scratches and were able to continue. Later, at the final pit stop, the Okada/Barros team blew their chances for victory with a rare mistake-filled pit stop.

"I must say sorry to Alex [Barros] because I crashed at the chicane," apologized Okada. "I will make revenge for [it] next year."

Barros was one minute and 12 seconds behind at the start of the dark eighth hour, and retrieved all but 14 seconds from Edwards.

"I have never been so tired before in [an] 8-Hours race," Barros said. "However, I never gave up."

The Honda one-two finish marked the fifth consecutive year that the motorcycle giant has maintained a firm grip on the all-important race. Honda has now chalked up 16 victories in 24 Suzuka 8 Hours.

Finishing third to spoil an all Honda sweep of the podium was Team Suzuki, the lone factory team from Suzuki. They started from pole and took advantage of the new-for-2001 regulation of three-rider teams in the race, but their race plan went out the window when Yukio Kagayarna rode off at Spoon Curve. Teammates Akira Ryo and Atsushi Watanabe shared third-place honors.

"We were really looking forward to win, and we had the chance to win," Ryo said. "The other teams were very competitive."
Team Suzuki finished on the lead lap, a minute behind Okada and Barros.

Defending 8 Hours champions Tohru Ukawa and Daijiro Kato finished 11 seconds behind the Suzuki. Both Ukawa and Kato were unhappy with how their machine set-up worked in race conditions. As was the case last year, their Honda was fitted with Dunlops, but this year the Michelin tires used by the other two Honda teams were the envy of others.

The day was as bad for Kawasaki and Yamaha as it was good for Honda and Suzuki.

The first-string Kawasaki team of Akira Yanagawa and Hitoyatsu Izutsu crashed three times from contact when overtaking lapped riders. The second-string team of Tamaki Serizawa and Gregorio Lavilla were out of the game when Lavilla highsided in the fourth hour, smashing the seat sub-frame.

Yamaha found that last year's YZF-R7s were no match against this year's Honda VTRI000s or Suzuki's GSX-R750. The team of Anthony Gobert and Noriyuki Haga were holding down fifth for hours on end until their R7 spit the drive chain off with 20 minutes to go. The second factory Yamaha was doing nearly as well until rider Wataru Yoshikawa crashed it at mid-race.

"It's pretty disappointing," Gobert said. "It's the same problem we've been having in America with the bike – the chain coming off. It's a real shame. We rode really hard. We all deserved a top-five finish - it would have been nice. That's the way it goes."

Gobert rode the 8 Hours while still feeling the effect of his broken left wrist. "I had fun," the Australian said. "But to be honest, I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to make the race. Considering like even a week ago, Brainerd even, I couldn't string that many laps together. Then to come here - this is probably the most demanding track in the world - to come here and race the 8 Hours, still pretty banged up, I'm happy with my performance. I thank Dr. [Art] Ting and David Gray for helping me get through this. Without them, it wouldn't have been possible."

Floridian Michael Barnes finished 39th on the Hooters Suzuki GSX-R1000. Barnes rode with Kyoichi Kosaka after Hooters Racing's Mike Ciccotto declined to ride due to lingering injuries. Despite a lowside crash by Barnes and, later on, transmission problems, the Hooters Suzuki made it to the checkered flag in front of 82,000 fans.

Endurance World Champions Phase 1 never made it past the second hour, after Tony Rees crashed on cold tires and destroyed their Suzuki GSX-RI000. Their only real competition at Suzuka as far as the Endurance World Championship at Suzuka is concerned was the Chinese monikered Zongshen Team, with riders Stephene Mertens and Warwick Nowland. Zongshen Team finished ninth overall, and first in the Super Production class, with their GSXRI000. They improved their standings in the Super Production World Cup championship to third with 92 points. Suzuki Castrol Team leads the championship with 150 points.



RACE

The streak of good weather through practice and qualifying continued into race day. Good weather, by Suzuka standards, is hot with noticeable humidity. Bad weather is hot with sweltering humidity. Or typhoons.

The 45-minute pre-race practice session foretold the race, both beginning and end. Eight teams clocked times between 2:09 and 2: 10, the fastest being Edwards and Rossi with Okada and Barros second, ready for business.

It's always an 11:30 a.m. start for the 8 Hours, but the organizers pace things to have the riders in place for the Le Mans start at 11:28. There is a lot of build up to the start, with pretty girls prancing about and tension-filled music blaring out of the PA system. Adrenalin got the best of Ryo, who twice ran to the Armco in front of the grandstands: once to toss a chair over the fence, and a second time to punch the sky with both fists.

Come 11:30 a.m. Ryo put his pent-up adrenalin to constructive use, and shot off into turn one first on his Suzuki. Rossi, rarely an impressive starter in Grand Prix, followed, with the Kawasakis of Yanagawa and Serizawa third and fourth. Keiichi Kitagawa was fifth on an X-Formula-class Suzuki GSX-RI000.

"It was very good," said Rossi of his first-ever LeMans start. "I want to propose for World Championship."

Gobert failed to get away quickly.

"Today, the bike had a little bit of a problem getting started," he said. "When I went to do the warm-up lap, it wouldn't start. Just brrrr, brrr [thumbs the starter button]. I was like, 'no way!' Then I come to the grid and I hope I'm all right. [At the start) I ran across, I was like right there. I did a practice start in the pit, and I was like really, really fast. I thought, 'Jeez, I might even have a shot to holeshot this thing; at least be up there with them.' Then, when I jumped on the bike - brrr, brrr - it didn't start. Then everyone went past and I was in like 20-something position."

Ryo's adrenalin was still flowing through the S-curves and Dunlop Curve and had a several-bike-length gap on the field. Okada and Kato went around Kitagawa in the snaky uphill S-Curves and tagged on to Serizawa.

On the run down the back straight Rossi pulled up on the inside of Ryo, but allowed Ryo to take the left-hand 130R corner at the end of the straight.

At the end of the opening lap, Ryo led over Rossi by .085 of a second, with Yanagawa after Rossi by a similar amount. A half-second later came Serizawa, with Okada and Kato in tow. Kitagawa was a second behind Kato, and had Yuichi Tekeda, on a satellite team Honda VTRlOOOSPl, to worry about in eighth. The Yoshimura-entered GSX-RI000 X-Formula bike was closely behind as well.

The corner workers had their first call of the day on the third lap when Osuma Deguchi on the Yoshimura GSX-R1000 overcooked Spoon Curve. Deguchi, who has won the X-Formula class in the two previous 8 Hours with Australian Shawn Giles, was hauled off to the hospital with suspected cracked ribs and a broken finger or two.

There was no rivalry between the leaders displayed over the next three laps. On the seventh trip around the circuit, Rossi drafted Ryo on the back straight, and at the start/finish was dead even with Yanagawa. There are no prizes for guessing who reached turn one first.

The lead pack caught the slowest of the slow riders on the 10th lap at the right kink corner from Degner to the ultra-tight hairpin. Kato overtook Yanagawa while overtaking the backmarker to move up into fourth. Down the back straight, Okada stretched the throttle cable of his Honda to move around Ryo.

At the end of 10 laps, Rossi was nearly a second in front of Okada, with Ryo a quarter-second later in third. Kato was three-quarters of a second later in fourth, with Yanagawa a like distance away in fifth. Kitagawa was now shaken off the lead group, two seconds behind Yanagawa. Serizawa was another second and a half behind Kitagawa in seventh. Takeda was a long 14 seconds farther back, and Matsudo and Gobert were another four seconds away.

After riding with a cool head for 10 laps, Rossi tried to drop his lap times from the 2:10 range to 2:09, but was bogged down in backmarkers.

"This is not like a Grand Prix," Rossi explained. "For the first hour, it is necessary to wait. After waiting 10 laps, I was more fast, so I try to go, but it was difficult."

Indeed, none of the top 10 riders could promote themselves in the running order over the next three laps. On lap 14, Gobert winged his way around Matsudo, and Kato decided to show-off his Honda to Ryo.

Bright-red Hondas were now in the top three places. Okada and Kato dropped their lap times to the 2:09 range to get back to less than two seconds behind Rossi, but the fiyil1g Italian had the afterburners on. Over the next three laps, Rossi's lead swelled to five seconds over the Japanese aces.

There were many eventful crashes on the day, fortunately none serious save for Deguchi's cracked ribs. The first spectacular incident was with Yanagawa: Coming out of the chicane on lap 20, Yanagawa plowed right into the backside of a backmarker. The backmarker stayed up and continued on his Sunday stroll at Suzuka, but Yanagawa was sent rolling through the grass.

"One rider, slow rider, he lost gear or he brake at the exit of the chicane," Yanagawa explained. "Then my bike hit him. I try to escape, but my front-brake lever hit him."

Fortunately, it was a low-speed crash, and neither Yanagawa nor his bike sustained damage. In fact, Yanagawa claimed the bike was better after the crash!

"Actually, after the crash my bike feel better, especially front end. I don't know why," Yanagawa said. "Next two hours, I did really good lap times, consistent many laps."

Yanagawa rejoined the race in 20th place and rode six more laps before pitting. The first factory riders to pull in to the pits were Okada and Gobert on lap 24, 52 minutes into the race. Rossi, Ryo, Matsudo and Takeda came in on the next lap, and by lap 26, Kato, Serizawa and Yanagawa were in for fuel and tires, and to hand-off riding chores to their teammates.

Yanagawa's teammate Izutsu was back in the pits after one lap complaining of brake troubles, front and rear, which took seven minutes to service. Izutsu pulled in again after one lap with the new brakes for adjustments, and then rejoined the race five laps down in 58th place, to the good of just six other teams.

The first round of pit stops were completed by the one-hour mark. Edwards was leading Kagayama on the quick Suzuki by a second, with Barros and Ukawa six seconds behind in a battle for third. Lavilla was a lengthy 42 seconds behind Barros and Ukawa, with Toshiyuki Arakaki on the ex-Kitagawa X-Formula bike on his heels. Haga was seventh, 15 seconds back, but lapping significantly faster than Lavilla and Arakaki. Takeda's teammate Yamaguchi was a couple seconds behind Haga, and Yoshikawa, on the second factory Yamaha, a similar distance behind Yamaguchi in ninth. Three other teams were still on the lead lap.

The Hondas were now 1-2-3, a situation that would hold for the next 136 laps. Edwards had eight seconds on Barros and Ukawa by lap 35, who were circulating the track in formation. Kagayama was 16 seconds from the GP duo, but 37 seconds ahead of Lavilla. Haga was sixth, six seconds away from Lavilla, after passing Arakaki two laps earlier. Arakaki would suffer the same from Yoshikawa two laps later.

Ukawa drafted past Barros on the front straight at the beginning of lap 36, igniting a fire in Barros to immediately retake second from Ukawa in the S-Curves, and start methodically taking time out of Edwards' sizeable lead.
"I have problem with the grip," Barros explained later. "At that time, the ground was 50-degrees Celsius [122 degrees F]. It was very hot - the most hot conditions we ever race. Also, Colin [Edwards] not so fast, but I don't want to take a risk. I know the tire, under this condition, it's very hot for Dunlop and Michelin. So I want to keep a little bit the physical, to keep smooth, to feel the machine."

The factory teams were approaching the second round of pit stops by lap 50. Edwards held a six-second advantage on Barros, who held a twosecond advantage on Ukawa. Kagayama was seventeen seconds behind Ukawa, fortunate to not have lost more time since his off-course ride at Spoon. Haga was some 50 seconds away from Kagayama in fifth, a place that the Yamaha would stay rooted in for the next five hours. Lavilla was a couple seconds away from Haga. Yoshikawa was 21 seconds back, and had been losing time hand-over-fist for the last 10 laps.

Barros initiated the pit stop activity on lap 51, one hour and 52 minutes in to the race. Edwards and Haga pitted the following lap, Kagayama, Lavilla, Yoshikawa, Yamaguchi and Izutsu on the next lap, and Ukawa the only one to hold out until lap 54.
"The first hour, for me, it was easy," Edwards said. "When I got off the bike I felt like a million bucks. Just cruised around, do some consistent laps, and away we go."

Team Suzuki pulled a surprise for the third hour by putting Atsushi Watanabe on the bike rather than first-hour Ryo. Watanabe is part of the All-Japan Superbike Championship Suzuki factory team, still, Team Suzuki's move was another facet of the unorthodox strategy by Suzuki for this year's 8 Hours.

"We are very competitive people," Ryo explained. "We needed the strength of the three to keep pace for the eight hours, so we decided to use three riders."

Lap 55 saw the clock hit two hours. Six bikes were still on the lead lap, with Rossi three seconds clear of Okada. Kato was ten seconds behind Okada, with the former's team having a longer pit stop than the other two Honda teams. Watanabe was 10 seconds adrift from Kato, and Gobert was a full minute and change from Watanabe. Serizawa, nine seconds behind Gobert, was the last of the bikes not to be lapped by Rossi and Edwards.

On lap 58, Yuichi Takeda went from eighth place, one lap down, to 11th place, two laps down, when he had to pit for exhaust-pipe repairs. Takeda was observed kicking imaginary objects while his mechanics carried out their duties.

On the track, the action was heating up. The sky was now overcast with clouds, and the riders were getting better lap times out of their tires. Okada worked the gap down to under a second by lap 64, and on the following lap Kato set the fastest time of the race to that point at 2:09.343. But Okada and Kato had trouble stringing fast laps together, and Okada later complained of rear-traction problems during this hour due to machine setup, and not from tire selection.

Okada's interval from Rossi grew from a second to over five seconds from lap 72 until he pitted on lap 78.

"Yes, I see Okada today is very strong, very fast. I push very much, every time," Rossi said.

Kato failed to make any dent on the distance to Okada during the third hour, but did see the Suzuki lose another twenty seconds on top of the ten they had already lost by the start of the third hour. Gobert was still in fifth, but had to stare at Rossi's exhaust pipes for his final three trips around the track before pitting. Still, Gobert was pleased with how his second tour of duty went.

"The second stint I went out and I lowered my lap times by over a second a lap," said the 26-year-old Australian. "I felt really strong, I was pushing hard. I got away, I gapped the 21 guy [Matsudo]. Then I got the blue flag, I looked behind, and Serizawa went past. Serizawa caught me on the Kawasaki, sort of in traffic a bit. I thought, 'hang on, he's behind me, not lapping me!' That kind of got me going. I passed him, and then I pulled away from him, a lot [about five seconds]."

As before, Okada on the Honda and Gobert on the Yamaha were the first to pit at the end of the third hour. They went in on lap 79, followed by Rossi, Serizawa and Matsudo on the next lap, and Watanabe and Takeda after that. Kato stayed out until lap 83, leading the race for three laps though riding with empty pockets.

Lavilla's return to action, taking over for Serizawa, was short-lived. Within two laps, the handsome Spaniard was on his butt, sitting in the gravel outside of Spoon Curve.

"On my second lap, there was a slow rider in front of me at Spoon Corner," Lavilla explained. "I had to go very tight on the inside of the corner. It looks like I was on the dirty, dusty part of the track, because I highside with nearly no throttle. The left side of the tire was not very hot, and the track was not very clean. I just open the throttle a little bit, and I highside very high."

A dozen laps later, Yoshikawa would find himself in the same predicament. However, the Japanese rider would get his Yamaha running again and head back to the pits. Don't ask why, but the team fixed the bike and soldiered around for another four hours, fourteen laps down from the leaders.

Up until this point, the riders had been conducting themselves like gentlemen, with nobody giving anyone a hard time. That was all about to change.

Edwards' out lap was number 81 for the team, and the Texan found himself five seconds in front of Barros. Both riders produced mid-2:10 lap times the following lap, and then Barros did a string of 2:09s the following three laps, the last one to set a new fast lap of the race until that point of 2:09.307. Edwards was still running the mid-2:10 pace, and by lap 85 Barros was within 1.6 seconds. "The last three hours I said I must attack," Barros admitted. "You must change your strategy, depending on how the race is going. The second hour I said I must make the first 10 laps very faster. Now, I know the first 10 laps that the tire is a new one, it's good, the ground is now 46 or 43degree Celsius [115-110 degrees F], so I push to try to make ten laps quickly. After the attack, I keep the pace at 2:10."

Barros reduced the gap to marginally less than a second the next time 'round. Edwards and Barros found a school of four backmarkers fishing their way through the hairpin on the following lap, thus allowing Barros to sneak right up to Edwards. Two more backmarkers at Spoon Curve further aided Barros' cause.

Regardless, Edwards stayed in front of Barros through laps 87 and 88, and most of lap 89 for that matter. But at the end of lap 89, as Edwards was setting up for the Casio Triangle chicane, Barros bombed up the inside, with wheels sliding and forks bottomed out on the brakes.

"He tracked me down from a few seconds back. I was going okay, but he was going fast. When he went by me, I thought he was pushing hard to lead," reflected Edwards on Barros' maneuver.

Edwards wasted little time getting back by. At the next point on the circuit where the riders use the brakes, turn one, Edwards went up the inside of Barros. The fight was on.

For Edwards, Barros, and all the fans, the backmarkers stayed out of the picture for the next two laps. Barros' Honda went like stink down the back straight and overtook Edwards. The front straight, though, was the property of Edwards, and the Texan swooshed into turn one ahead of the Brazilian.

Again, Barros went in front of Edwards on the run down the backstraight drag strip, and on the front straight Edwards put the hammer down on Barros.

"Every time he passed me, I passed him right back," Edwards said. "He's fast in the back-straight corner, he gets a good drive, and I get a better drive on to the front straight."

Barros agreed. "He can open the throttle earlier [at the front straight] and have less spinning, on the back straight I have a little bit more traction. It's just a setting difference that makes this difference."

Backmarkers were back now, and in plentiful enough numbers that Barros gave Edwards a look on the back straight, but declined to overtake. The two Hondas eased through a cluster of slower bikes from the 130R to chicane section of track, with Edwards holding a quarter-second lead over Barros.

Edwards and Barros refrained only from overtaking on the next three laps, as lap times continued at a low 2:10 while the pair overhauled the slow-pokes.

Barros used the back straight, again, to get the advantage of Edwards on lap 95. On cue, Edwards passed Barros right back at turn one on the following lap. On the run through the double Degner curves, Edwards was able to scoot past a wobbly Kawasaki ZX-9R X-Formula bike, whereas Barros thought better to wait until after Degner to pick off the slap-happy Kawi.
It looked like a lucky break for Edwards, but it lasted just seconds. Come the hairpin, Edwards found Warwick Nowland and Norihiko Fujiwara having their own private scrap, and hogging the track. Edwards was held up all the way to Spoon Curve, and Barros came swooping back.

The action stayed just below the boiling point for the next three laps, with Edwards leading the way. On lap 99, the pair went down the back straight, but Barros did not attempt the pass. Instead, Barros decided to let his brakes do the talking at the Casio Triangle, and forged past on the inside.

"I preferred leading, just because I didn't want him to get away," Edwards said. "Then, once he got by me, I realized he couldn't go any faster. So then I thought, 'f***, it's easier to follow.'"

"I know I can stay behind and just follow, but sometimes I want to have fun," Barros said. "Follow, I don't like. I like to go first."
Edwards came in on lap 108, and Team Suzuki rider Ryo on lap 109. Ukawa took credit as the race leader for three laps until he finally surrendered the Honda to Kato.

Rossi and Okada, thankfully, joined the track with as much fighting spirit as Edwards on Barros. Okada was there first, of course, and had a clear view of the young Italian's reentry to the race while having his Honda tapped out in sixth gear on the front straight. "Okay, go! I'm ready!" said Okada after he laid eyes on Rossi.

Okada went sweeping past, and by the end of Rossi's out lap, Okada held a 3.5-second advantage. Rossi had this down to 2.5 seconds in four laps, but it was hard work. Okada was working off laps with mid-2:09 lap times, and Rossi dug deep to produce the day's first sub-2:09 lap time - a 2:08.992 - on lap 112.

Within three laps, Rossi had clawed back to within a second of Okada. Both riders were staying in the 2:09 zone. One could only wonder how long the riders could keep this pace going.

You didn't need to wait long. On lap 117, Okada tipped his Honda to negotiate the chicane, and the bike went all the way over and to its right side. Rossi was hunkered over for the turn, too, but picked up the bike and ran straight over the curbs to avoid the fallen Okada and crashing himself.

"I just keep inside line. I come, try to go in the corner, but very suddenly' lose front," Okada explained. "I'm very lucky, machine almost no broken. Still engine running, so I lift up. Just [left handlebar] getting inside. For riding a little bit difficult, but I try to catch."

Okada was lucky indeed. He resumed the race well before third-place Kato was on the scene, and lost only 16 seconds to Rossi.

"I have very hard work with Tady, because today he is very, very fast," Rossi said. "When I see him crash at the chicane, I think the race is finished. But no. He's quite lucky that the bike, no problem, and he return very hard. If I knew he would restart, then I would have rode over Okada."

For Rossi, now there was not a cloud in the sky. He cooled the pace to 2:10, while a gloomy Okada completed laps no faster than two minutes, 11 seconds apiece.

Okada ended his blundered third ride on lap 135. The deficit stood at 27 seconds, but there was still three hours to go.
Edwards was on the track the following lap, and by lap 137 the interval from Edwards to Barros was already down to 18 seconds. Three laps later, 16 seconds. Barros was tearing chunks out of Edwards' advantage at the steady rate of a second a lap. It didn't last for long, as there are only so many 2:09 lap times one can get from a set of tires, and Barros had claimed them all within 30 minutes. The interval now stabilized at 10 seconds with two and a half hours remaining. The third-place Honda, now with Ukawa at the helm, was a mile back in third and developing a misfire. The Team Suzuki bike was in fourth, and looking set to get lapped before the race was over.

Those intervals were all rendered meaningless with 17 minutes remaining in the hour. Privateer Takaaki Hodon crashed his Kawasaki ZX-7RR Superbike in the S-curves, and gave the corner workers more than they could handle: a fuel fire on the left side of the track, and a limp rider on the right.

Race organizers dispatched the safety cars. Per the FIM regulations, two are employed, creating two groups of riders. Edwards and Barros were in the first group, while Ukawa was unlucky to end up in the latter group, along with Watanabe on the Suzuki.

"We had our lead to 20 seconds or so, and then when the pace car come out, they gained back the advantage to us," Edwards said. "This pissed me off, really. But this is the 8 Hours anything can happen."

"I reduce the interval to eleven, or ten seconds, and the pace car come," Barros said. "But I a little bit worry about have two pace cars. I don't know, I didn't see Colin. But then I .see four machines in the middle between me and him and I say, 'Okay, I'm two or three seconds behind.' God take away something at the crash, but now give back."

The pace cars pulled off on lap 161. Barros was a second behind Edwards, and was homing in for the kill.
Some 43 laps after Okada laid the Honda over at the chicane, Barros overtook Edwards. Fittingly, the pass occurred at the very point where Okada lost control some two hours earlier.

Edwards followed for a lap, and then pitted. This time it would be Rossi on the track first, ready to pounce on Okada.
Okada went out on the next lap (165), and set about finding a way to make up the 2.7 seconds to Rossi. In short, he failed - by the time the seventh hour ended, Rossi had Okada nine seconds behind.

Hence as the seventh hour drew to a close, it was clear we had a Honda versus Honda fight to the finish.

Okada pulled in on lap 190, and disaster struck. During the pit stop, with Barros sitting on the bike and waiting for new wheels to be fitted, Barros sensed the bike being lowered, and thumbed the engine starter button. However, a pit crewmember was still installing the rear axle. When Barros let out the clutch the rear wheel became cocked up, requiring an extra minute in the pits to set right.

Out back you could hear the fat lady warming up her vocal chords. Edwards, in the next pit stall and waiting for Rossi to come in two laps later, watched Barros and crew blow their chances for victory. When Edwards rejoined the race for the final time, he enjoyed a healthy 38 seconds on Barros. In the waning hours of daylight, Edwards deftly threaded his way through backmarkers to keep the interval to Barros at 30-some seconds.

"I disappoint, I very disappoint on the last pit stop," said a sad Barros. "I see the guys don't finish their work; I don't know what's happen with back tire. So (said I must try best again, I know at nighttime I can go faster. So I say, 'please, dark come very quickly. God help me.'"

Edwards, though, knew he had this race in the bag, "The fourth hour, (just did what I had to do. Just cruised it around, didn't take too many chances, and just relaxed."

"My mind, I just think of victory," Barros said, "But the gap is too big. 1 see the board the last seven minutes of the race and I am 20 seconds behind, Okay, I try to keep the pace, but it is too many seconds for just three or four laps."

Edwards took the win 14.286 seconds ahead of Barros, Kagayama piloted the Team Suzuki bike home in third, while Ukawa finished the riding chores on the third factory Honda, Poor Haga walked in, with the drive chain from his Yamaha lost somewhere in the dark.

Briefly…

In a cruel Irony, Haga was fined 250 Swiss francs over the week for speeding violations in the pits. "I check tachometer. For first gear, 8000 rpm. Then· I don't know. They speed limit me," The silver·haired Haga said.

One interesting statistic from the 8 Hour results are the median lap times from the top teams. The median time is the time which one finds an equal number of faster lap times compared to slower lap times. In endurance racing the median represents the lap time that a team actually rides at. As the average lap time is significantly affected by pit stop laps. The best median lap time from the 2001 8 Hours was from the Okada/Barros team at 2:10.760, followed by Edwards/Rossi at 2:10.816, Ukawa/Kato at 2:11,069, and Ryo/Kagayama/Watanbe at 2:11.277. Last year's best median time was from race winners Ukawa and Kato at 2: 11.858, thus clearly indicating that race times this year were a full second a lap faster than last year.

Complaining about slow riders seemed to be every factory rider's number-one complaint. Edwards: "I was royally pissed-off [Friday] morning. Trying to qualify - my first lap out of the pit was my only clear one, because I was in front of everybody. After that it was just disgusting· a lot of slow guys. You've got about a handful of international guys that come over here, and then you've got to find 100 other guys to fill the grid. There aren't 100 other guys in Japan that can ride a motorcycle. Some of the guys are just ridiculous. It's crazy. There are times when you'd just love to have a shotgun out there, and get rid of a few," Yanagawa: "Too many slow riders. They have good bike, I mean, straight speed, really good. Difficult to pass." Okada: "Every session, for me, big problem was backmarker. This year particularly, it was big problem for me. Everyone complaining. The 600 guys are like stock machine, running together - not like Grand Prix. I don't know backmarker, which way they go - very different cornering speed.", as part of a sponsorship tie-in explained by Skip Dowling from Orient Express. "We're the importer for TiForce exhaust systems, which are made right here In Suzuka. Part of our marketing plan was to get an American team over here to get TiForce a lot of publicity in their home country, as well as go back to the States and advertise it as a real high-end, high-performance exhaust system. Last year (Orient Express! got signed up with the Hooters team to put exhaust systems on their bikes. We ran Daytona, and there we had a meeting with the people from Suzuka to put everything together, Last few months we gathered a team up. We've got a team of 21 people here, marketing people as well as Hooters team members, support staff, whatever. But it all came together pretty smoothly, organizing flights and all that. The staff here at Suzuka IS absolutely fantastic, as far as support and all that. They've gone out of their way and have been first class in everything they've done. The initial plan for us was to prep the bikes at home, and get them shipped here. But we just kind of ran out of time to get bikes together and get them prepped and shipped over here. In the end, the bikes were prepped here. We brought our own suspension. And we were going to do the final dialing in over here and what not. Koiichi spent the last couple weekends dialing the bike in, getting some pretty respectable lap times in here, and just sorting it out. We took It to the final stage; changed a fair amount of things to suit Mike Barnes and Mike Ciccotto, and it turns out Occotto will not be riding. Our general plan was to come here, get our feet wet. And then maybe over the next couple years to come back and be familiar with everything." was enjoying himself as a Suzuka newbie. "Shortly after I spoke with Steve DeCamp about going to go Hooters, I was aware that the Suzuka trip was part of going to the Suzuka 8 Hours. (Suzuka Circuit! is an immaculate track, super fast guys. I was intimidated, but I was excited and not that nervous because of the fact that I've done some world endurance this year, and that gave me a lot of confidence. The biggest thing is the heat. I’m used to hot weather, but this is incredible hot. This is like Gateway in St. Louis, the Superbike National we had there a few years ago. This is really, really hot. And the track is so physically demanding. Recognizing a lot of the riders has helped put me at ease. Also, having Takahito Mori here was a big help, He talked me through the track, showed me some secrets and whatnot. He told me not to crash in the fast right before Spoon Curve. He's like, 'don't crash there, many people have been injured there.' So he crashed there yesterday, and now he's done! He has a shoulder and a knee injury, but he's okay. I was sitting here watching it on the monitor, and I was trying to figure out where that turn was from the camera angle. Then I realized it was him!", and became a member of the Spoon Curve Crash Club while running inside the top 20_ "It was going great until my second stint, when I lowsided coming on to the back straightaway, It really bummed me out. I didn't get on the gas soon enough. It stayed on it's side, I picked it back up, took the gravel out of the lower, and got back out there. Then we suffered a transmission problem, which the guys fixed. That cost us 14 minutes. Then another problem from the accident: we broke the front-fairing bracket. We had to repair that when we turned our light on, because they noticed our light wasn't in the right spot. I had just gotten back up to 33rd from 49th. But I had a really good time. I stuck with Valentino Rossi a few times· it's on video tape!", but Ciccotto withdrew due to strength issues in his left hand caused by a broken bone. "I wanted to ride, and I went out and did a few laps, and got up to speed okay, but not at the speed I need to be. It was pretty irritating. I did not feel comfortable on the bike, and I didn't want to throw it away, I'd rather go home, get some surgery, and get ready for the AMA events.", and another team on Michelin tires. Beginning this season, Michelin stopped supporting riders in the All-Japan Superbike Championship, and the domestic teams, as in AMA Superbike, have uniformly converted to Dunlop. Nicolas Goubert from Michelin took time out to explain. "We're not racing In Japan anymore. Basically, we've stopped competing in big national events. It's the same In U.S., we stopped a few years ago, we stopped thiS year In Japan. Cost reduction, mainly. We have a small team here, just to support the 500 tests here in Japan. All the 500 teams now, they have a GP team, and test team. We have two people here in Japan! To support with tires for these tests basically, these people help prepare us for Suzuka 8 Hours," According to Goubert, Michelin's place in the motorcycle tire market was not strong enough to justify a high-profile presence at natIonal level events. M Michelin for the two wheel department is very small compared with the four-wheel one. We don't sell that many two-wheel tires. When you look at the investment for what we have to do to be in the national racing. It’s huge, compared to what we sell. So we decided to withdraw from all of that and keep only in worldwide activities, which is 500 and World Superbike." Withdrawing from national events does save Michelin money, but at a cost to some of their international level effort. "We knew from the beginning, when we decided to with· draw from all these national championships· I mean, all three main ones: UK, USA, and Japan· we knew this would cause us problems at the world level. Basically, when you don't race in national championship. It gives you less information. You need to ride and optimize tires for each track. We knew it would be more difficult for 8 Hours, more difficult for Donington, more difficult for Brands Hatch, Laguna.... well, for Laguna it's always been difficult." Michelin's return to Formula One is not related to downsizing of motorcycle racing activities, though. "We're really happy the way F1 has been going. We didn't expect to be on top of the field so quickly. For us, it's unbelievable. You know, from the beginning, when the big boss said we were going to enter the Formula One races, he said straight away that all the other racing departments would be the same. Our involvement in World Rally championship, GT, and two wheel would be the same. And it's what we've been doing. We do expect to have some return from Formula One, We don't know exactly when we'll have that return, because Formula One puts a lot more money into the racing division. It means a lot more about research and development, material. Of course, all the stuff we use in Formula One is not good for two-wheel, but part of it will eventually be good, sooner or later. We're very positive about that.", third in the 2000 AMA Pro Thunder Championship and brother of Aprilia Superbike rider Troy Corser. Dale Corser now works as a stunt man at Universal Studios Japan, located in nearby Osaka. "At [the last AMA National at] Willow Springs there was a lot of action in the pits with Ducati talking with Mitch Hansen at HMC. Ducati said, 'Here's the deal: you've got these bikes and these two riders, which are Scott Russell and Steve Rapp,' that sort of let me out in the cold. I flew out of Willow Springs about four days after, went back home, and made a few phone calls. I heard about an audition down under with Universal Studios Japan. I thought I’d go for it. I went for the audition. I was pretty confident I’d get the job, and I did. The money is pretty good. The show 'Waterworld' is the number one show in USJ [Universal Studios Japan]. it's pretty popular. I play the Mariner, which is Kevin Costner, and the hero of the show. It basically involves riding a Jet Ski, a stand-up 750. A lot of high-speed chases, submarines, sprays. My only weapon is my Jet Ski spray. Maybe this will eventually lead into acting, that's the whole goal. I’d like to try to get In to Universal Studios Hollywood, and maybe this will lead in to stunt work. I’m pretty versatile: Jet Ski, water ski, skateboarding, BMX, and all that sort of stuff. "