Seven Aussies in Suzuka 8 Hour top 10 as Yamaha dominates
A brilliant day out for the Australian connection, although a victory again proved to be elusive as Yamaha's factory team claimed the chequered flagYamaha Factory Racing Team won the 40th edition of the Suzuka 8 Hour world enduranca race in Japan – it's third successive triumph.
Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Briton Alex Lowes and Dutchman Michael van der Mark completed 216 laps of the Suzuka circuit on the YZF-R1, finishing nearly a lap ahead of Kawasaki Team Green (Leon Haslam, Kazuma Watanabe and Azlan Shah Bin Kamaruzaman).
Yamaha Factory Racing is now the second team to have won the race three years in a row, after Cabin Honda from 2000-2002. Moreover, Lowes also set a new lap record of 2:06.932, eclipsing Ryuichi Kiyonari’s 2:07.943 five-year-old benchmark.
It was Yamaha's seventh victory in the event, with Honda still leading the way on 27 wins.
Aussies to the fore
In a remarkable performance, Seven Australians finished in the top 10, with Josh Hook in third position on the FCC TSR Honda he shared with Dominique Aegerter and Randy de Puniet. FCC TSR looked set to finish second before the bike’s engine caught fire late in the piece, forcing de Puniet to make a lightning-quick pit stop a few minutes before the finish.
In front of 128,000 spectators, Aussie MotoGP campiagner Jack Miller – making his first appearance in the endurance classic – was fourth on the Musashi RT Harc-Pro Honda, which also featured Takumi Takahashi and Takaaki Nakagami. Musashi was battling with Yamaha Factory Racing at the start before Nakagami crashed and fell back to fourth place.
The other Australians in the top 10 were:
- Broc Parkes (YART Yamaha) – 5th
- Josh Brookes (Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing) – 7th
- Josh Waters (MotoMap Supply Future Access Suzuki) – 9th
- Jason O'Halloran and Jamie Stauffer (Honda Dream RT Sakurai Honda) – 10th
Fifty-seven teams completed the distance, with 11 either failing to complete the minimum laps or retired.
Meanwhile, an 11th-place finish by GMT94 Yamaha’s David Checa, Niccolò Canepa and Mike Di Meglio saw the team clinch the 2016-2017 Endurance World Championship. This is the French team’s third title after its previous successes in 2004 and 2014. Parkes' YART equip finished third in the world title.
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