Full Suzuka 8 Hour Race Report
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Full Suzuka 8 Hour Race Report
YAMAHA Win Suzuka 8 Hour

The 38th running of the Suzuka 8 Hours has been run and won with Yamaha Factory Racing Team taking the first victory for Yamaha in two decades. The riders, Naksuga, Smith and Espargaro clearly the fastest on the circuit all day.

Second place went to the FCC TSR Honda Fireblade piloted by 22-year-old Australian Josh Hook and Swiss Moto2 rider Dominique Aegerter.

Rounding out the podium was Team Kagayama, the riders Yukio Kagayama, Noriyuki Haga and Ryuichi Kiyonari.

Suzuki Endurance Racing Team finished fourth ahead of Yoshimura Suzuki, so a fifth place for Josh Waters.


The Race – Suzuka 8 Hours 2015

Keanu Reeves dropped the flag to signal the race start at 1230 Eastern Australian time as riders and 70,000 spectators baked in 33-degrees ambient. The Suzuka track surface nudging 60-degrees.

Team Kagayama got away first but was quickly overtaken by the factory Honda and Yoshimura Suzuki.  Towards the end of the opening lap Alex Lowes on the Yoshimura Suzuki powered past the Fireblade to take the lead.

The Moriwaki Honda then moved past the Kagayama Suzuki for third place as Dominique Aegerter pushed the FCC TSR Honda through to fourth place. 

Pole sitters Yamaha were in 11th place at the end of the opening lap.

Takahashi took the lead back from Alex Lowes at the 7-minute mark and the leading riders had already started lapping riders only nine-minutes into the race.

33-year-old Nakasuga was up to fifth and closing on the tightly packed leading quartet, lapping a couple of tenths a lap faster than those in front of him. Nakasuga a five-time Japanese Superbike Champion and currently dominating the domestic Japanese Superbike season 2015.

Aegerter took third place from Toni Elias at the 10-minute mark.

At the 13-minute mark Alex Lowes took the lead from Takahashi, while Kagayama moved up fourth place ahead of Elias.

Lowes then started to pull away from his pursuers and had 1.3-seconds on Takahashi by the 22-minute mark.

Broc Parkes had a problem on the Pirelli shod YART Yamaha and returned to the pits for the team to investigate. Minutes later the team confirmed their withdrawal from the race with technical problems.

By the half hour mark the leading riders were lapping slower bikes left, right and centre. Alex Lowes continued to hold sway up front ahead of Takahashi, Aegerter and Nakasuga. A minute later Nakasuga moved past Aegerter for third place.

Ryuichi Kiyonari was all over the back of the fifth place Toni Elias.

After 40-minutes very little still separated the leading quartet. As lapped traffic interrupted their flow, the distance between that top four stretched away, then closed up again, the distance between them largely dictated by how each of the riders fared as they scythed their way through lapped traffic.

Jason O’Halloran moved up to tenth place.

Kiyonari moved up to fifth place 48-minutes in the race.

Alex Lowes was the first of the front runners to pit at the 54-minute mark, he was followed in by Takahashi. The Honda pit-stop marginally quicker and closely followed the Suzuki out of pitlane. Casey Stoner taking the controls of the #634 Honda and quickly overtook Takumi Tsuda, who looked to be starting his out-lap a little gingerly on the Yoshimura Suzuki after taking over from Lowes, while Stoner had got straight down to business. 

Leading the race however was Nakasuga on the YZF-R1M, who stayed out on the circuit for a few more laps than the Honda and Suzuki top men and pitted at the 61-minute mark of the race after completing a 28-lap first stint. Bradley Smith took charged of the YZF-R1 from Nakasuga and joined the race in fourth place behind second placed Tsuda, who was now up to full speed and matching the pace of race leader Casey Stoner.

At the 66-minute mark Tsuda ran off the circuit and across the gravel trap at 130R after nearly running into the rear of Stoner. The Yoshimura Suzuki lost a number of places from that mistake which had promoted Josh Hook on the FCC TSR Honda up to second place, and Nakasuga into third.

Casey Stoner had a frightening scare at the 70-minute mark with the throttle sticking on as he braked for a fast left hander. The result was a massive and sickening end over end tumble. The #634 Honda race leader out of the race, and with the bike on its side in the middle of the circuit the pace car came out to slow the pace as the carnage was cleared from the circuit.

Leading the race behind the pace car after inheriting the lead from Stoner was 22-year old Josh Hook. What a moment for the young man from Taree, a home town he shares with three-time World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss.

The pace car left the circuit at 84-minutes and Bradley Smith was quickly all over the back of Hook and challenging for the race lead. It took both riders some time to get around Watanabe on the fast #87 Kawasaki.  Tsuda was running in third place on the Yoshimura Suzuki, two-seconds behind the leading duo.

24-year-old Bradley Smith took the lead on the Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1 from Hook at the 93-minute mark.

The safety car came out again one hour and 45 minutes into the race. The pace car stayed on circuit for around 13 minutes.

Josh Hook pitted two hours and 15 minutes into the race and handed over to Dominique Aegerter.

Five minutes later Pol Espargaro took charge of the leading #21 Yamaha and rejoined the circuit ahead of Alex Lowes, who had recently taken over the controls of the Yoshimura Suzuki from Tsuda.

Lowes quickly got the better of Espargaro, who was having his first stint on the YZF-R1 thus was building up to speed, while Lowes had already done a full stint at the start of the race.

With 2 hours and 25 minutes, and 61 laps down, Lowes still held the lead from Espargaro but on the next lap the Yamaha man demoted the Yoshimura Suzuki back to second place. Lowes looked to have had some issue with the bike and Espargaro slipped past easily as the pair negotiated a number of lapped riders.  Espargaro quickly built a two-second buffer over Lowes while Aegerter was three-seconds further back on the FCC TSR Honda.  After another six laps Espargaro extended his lead over Lowes by another second, the gap out to three-seconds.

With three hours down Espargaro had an 11-second lead over Lowes, who had 11-seconds on Aegerter. Noriyuki Haga was the only other rider on the same lap, 1minute-53-seconds behind the race leader.

Alex Lowes brought the Yoshimura Suzuki into pitlane three-hours and eight-minutes into the race and handed over once again to Tsuda. Josh Waters still had not had a turn on the bike.

The safety car was then brought out after a Ducati Panigale blew its engine spectacularly, leaving a trail of oil on the circuit.

Kazuki Watanabe entered pitlane and rode the bike straight in to the Team Garage for the mechanics to try and fix the machine after he had gone for a minor slide down the road on the oil left behind by the Ducati.

Pol Espargaro entered the pits and handed over the leading Yamaha to Nakasuga at the three-hour 27-minute mark, while still under the safety car.

The race got back underway at the three-hours 30-minute mark with Aegerter on the FCC TSR in the lead, but still requiring a stop. He had ten-seconds on the Yoshimura Suzuki ridden by Tsuda, who in turn had two-seconds on Nakasuga.   Three laps later Aegerter entered the pits to hand over to Josh Hook, the 22-year-old then rejoined the circuit in third place.

Tsuda ran off the circuit at the three-hour 40-minute mark and lost 30-seconds in the gravel trap at the final chicane before rejoining in second place, 35-seconds behind race leader Nakasuga on the Factory Yamaha. Tsuda had actually dropped the GSX-R and suffered a broken screen and ducktail in the fall. That damage, and the scare from his fall making him cautious, saw him lose a further 15-seconds on the Yamaha over the next couple of laps.

The safety car came out again at the three-hour 54-minute mark after a rider crashed at Spoon Curve, his machine was left stranded in the middle of the circuit. Naomichi Uramoto had gone down on the Dream RT Sakurai Fireblade he was sharing with Jason O’Halloran and Troy Herfoss. A little earlier the #55 Nanotop GSX-R shared by Phil Czaj had also gone down.

The race got back underway just after the halfway mark with Nakasuga leading Tsuda by a full minute, while Hook in third place was right on the tail of the Yoshimura Suzuki.

The SRC Kawasaki then crashed heavily, the ZX-10R in pieces after tumbling out of sixth place.

It was not long before the safety car was out again. Yoshimura Suzuki took the opportunity to pit and repair the damage from that earlier fall by Tsuda. Replacing various bits of bodywork and ensuring all the controls worked perfectly before Alex Lowes jump aboard for the next stint on the GSX-R1000.  A lot of time was lost in the pits repairing the machine and by the time Lowes rejoined the race he had lost six positions, the Yoshimura Suzuki demoted to eighth place, two laps behind the race leaders.

A few laps after the race got back underway the leading Yamaha entered the pits with Nakasuga handing over to Bradley Smith for his second stint on the #21 YZF-R1.  Not long after exiting pitlane the team were notified of a stop-go penalty for overtaking a rider under a waved yellow flag, presumably Nakasuga the culprit. That handed Josh Hook the race lead once again on the FCC TSR Honda Fireblade.

Smith rejoined the race in second place 68-seconds behind Hook after serving his penalty in the pits.

As the shadows across the track started to grow the track temperature was falling, down to 50c after registering over 60c earlier in the race.

Josh Hook pitted from the race lead at four-hours 55-minutes. It was a good stop, teammate Dominique Aegerter rejoining the race still in the lead with a 14-second buffer over the #21 Yamaha. Smith of course was already at full speed, while Aegerter would take a lap or two to get fully back in the groove and thus the Yamaha quickly made another ten-seconds on the Swiss rider, reducing the margin to five-seconds as the race passed the five hour mark.

Eight minutes later Smith passed Aegerter for the race lead, and immediately started to pull away by almost two-seconds a lap.

Smith entered pitlane to hand over the leading Yamaha to Pol Espargaro at five-hours 42-minutes. Aegerter inheriting the race lead again as a result.

By the six hour mark Yoshimura Suzuki had climbed their way back up to fifth place. Dominique Aegerter remained in the lead but the gap had narrowed to 30-seconds. A couple of minutes later Aegerter entered pitlane for the fifth pit stop for the FCC TSR squad, handing over to Josh Hook. The team relinquished the lead to the Factory Yamaha still ridden by Pol Espargaro during their time in the pits and when back out on circuit and up to speed Hook was 40-seconds behind the Yamaha.  Team Kagayama were running in third place.

Espargaro was very quick in his last stint, regularly lapping three-seconds faster than Hook and as a result quickly built up a handy lead over the FCC TSR rider.

Yoshimura Suzuki passed GMT94 Yamaha for fourth place six-hours and 20-minutes into the race. The team lost that position 15 minutes later during a pit stop as Josh Waters took the controls for the first time.

As the race passed the six-hours 37-minutes mark Espargaro had extended his lead over Hook to a full minute before entering pit lane and handing over the YZF-R1 to Nakasuga. The Japanese rider exited pitlane and joined the circuit a few seconds behind race leader Josh Hook.  Nakasuga passed the Honda five minutes later, on lap 170, and quickly started pulling away.

Josh Hook pitted as the timer clocked over seven hours, when he entered the pits he was 18-seconds behind the race leader.   Hook handed over the FCC TSR Fireblade to Dominique Aegerter for the final stint as light really started to fade around the Suzuka circuit.  By the time Aegerter was back on the circuit and up to full speed they were 1-minute 23-seconds behind the #21 Yamaha piloted by Nakasuga.

Josh Waters pitted with 45 minutes remaining in the race and handed the Yoshimura Suzuki over to Tsuda for the final stint, rejoining the race in sixth place.

With half hour remaining Yamaha Factory Racing held a one-minute 39-second leader over FCC TSR. Team Kagayama much further back in third place ahead of GMT94 Yamaha.

The leading Yamaha pitted with 25 minutes remaining and Bradley Smith jumped aboard. Shortly after Smith rejoined the track the safety car came out to close the field back up, but across two groups. The race order remained, Yamaha leading from FCC TSR Honda.

The safety car left the circuit and the green flag came out with ten minutes remaining in the race as all sunlight completely disappeared and left the circuit in darkness. Smith on the Yamaha with more than 60-seconds on the FCC TSR Honda. The Oxfordshire man did not make a mistake and took a clear victory for Yamaha, their first at the Suzuka 8 Hour in two decades.

Second place after a flawless performance from both Josh Hook and Dominique Aegerter on the FCC TSR Honda Fireblade.

Third place went to Team Kagayama, the riders Yukio Kagayama, Noriyuki Haga and Ryuichi Kiyonari.

Suzuki Endurance Racing Team finished fourth ahead of Yoshimura Suzuki, so a fifth place for Josh Waters.


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By Trevor Hedge
26-07-2015, 12:48 PM
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scaramanga Offline
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RE: Full Suzuka 8 Hour Race Report
very impressed with bradley smith
not only in this race but most the time in moto gp he has outshone yamaha golden boy espargaro
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proud to own and ride a british motorcycle  triumph daytona 675 Hehe
26-07-2015, 03:19 PM
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