Waters finishes second in Suzuka 8-Hour

In one of the most-thrilling finishes ever at the Suzuka 8-Hour race in Japan, the FCC TSR combination of Ryuichi Kiyonari, Kohsuke Akiyoshu and veteran Shinichi Itoh has won this year’s race by just 38.7 seconds over the pole-sitting Yoshimura Suzuki team, featuring Australian Josh Waters.

Yoshimura Suzuki, which also included Yukio Kagayama and Nobuatsu Aoki, led for a large chunk of the race, but the experienced FCC TSR combination of Ryuichi Kiyonari, Takumi Kohsuke Akiyoshu and veteran Shinichi Itoh eventually scored a grinding victory – Honda’s 24th in 34 events.

“This event is just so huge here it is amazing,” said Waters. “The crowd just goes wild and being right on the doorstep of all the Japanese manufacturers is great. I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity. I can’t thank Team Yoshimura Suzuki enough!”

"The heat was always going to be a big challenge, I spent two full weeks in Japan to test and get used to training in it. The track temperature at one stage was over 60 degrees Celsius! All the hard work was definitely worth it!"

In third place, also on the same lap as the two top teams, was the Musashi RT Harc-Pro Honda of Makota Tamada, Tadayuki Okada and Takumi Takahashi.

And another Australian was fourth – Damian Cudlin on the BMW Motorrad France machine alongside Sebastien Gimbert and Erwan Nigon.

The result also takes BMW to the top of the 2011 world endurance standings.

The all-Australian HRC-backed team of Wayne Maxwell and Jamie Stauffer – Waters’ great rivals domestically – failed to finish the event with an electrical gremlin, just when a top five finish was in their sights.

And finally, Melbourne rider Cameron Donald was another DNF, his Honda TT Legends machine suffering a rear wheel failure.

Suzuka 8-Hour results
1 FCC TSR Honda (Honda) 217 laps, 2 Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team (Suzuki GSX-R1000) - 38.765 seconds, 3 Musashi RT Harc-Pro (Honda) - 1'31.162, 4 BMW Motorrad France 99 (BMW) 212 laps, 5 Eva RT Test Type-01 Trickstar FRTR (Kawasaki) 211, 6 Crown Keibhosyou Racing (Honda) 210, 7 Yamaha Racing France GM94 iPhone (Yamaha) 210, 8 Teluru-HoneyBee Racing (Honda) 210, 9 Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 208, 10 Toho Racing Hiroshima Desmo (Ducati) 206.