Following a busy day of track action in Japan, with one free practice and two qualifying sessions, the Honda TT Legends team will start the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance World Championship race from 29th on the grid in anultra-competitive field of expert teams.

Conditions remained dry, hot and humid throughout the day as Simon Andrews, Michael Rutter and John McGuinness took to the Honda-owned 5.8km circuit for two 30-minute qualifying sessions apiece. The team's main aim was consistency and synchronicity between the riders and it achieved this with all three posting 2m12s laps. Suzuka novice Andrews was the quickest with 2’12.604, while fellow newcomer Rutter achieved 2’12.808 and McGuinness’s fastest lap was 2’12.954.

The team will take part in a night practice session this evening, followed by a one-hour free practice tomorrow afternoon. The Suzuka 8 Hours race will begin at 11.30am Japanese Standard Time on Sunday 28 July.

Neil Tuxworth

It’s been a good day overall and we’ve had no major problems. Our biggest issue is that two of the riders have never ridden here before so for them it is all about learning the circuit. It’s always hard to qualify here with all the local teams and the humid conditions but it’s gone reasonably well. Now it’s just a case of preparing for the race and hopefully our usual consistent performance will put us somewhere in the top ten.

John McGuinness

It’s been a long, tough day. We’re working really hard with the bike and have made quite a few changes during the day. We’re all within a tenth or two of each other in the 12s, which is a pretty respectable time considering the field of competition that we're in here. I always want more but we’re trying hard and when it comes to the race we’ll just keep plugging away as we do and hopefully we’ll be somewhere in the points come the flag.


Michael Rutter

It’s been a good day. I’ve had a lot to learn having never been here before and there are so many expert teams out on track We’ve learned a lot though and we’ve got the bike turning a bit better. It’s so hot and it’s going to be a very hard race but we’ll go out there and enjoy ourselves.

Simon Andrews

I was quick in most sessions but at the stage that I thought I could go a bit quicker it didn’t work so well. I had two near misses that could’ve been costly but I made it back and we made some changes to the chassis that put us back in the right direction. I’m looking forward to the race, it will definitely be interesting.

Qualifying position

1 Monster Energy Yamaha-YART 2m07.629 YAMAHA
2 Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team 2m07.688 SUZUKI
3 F.C.C. TSR Honda 2m07.857 HONDA
4 MuSashi RT HARC-PRO 2m07.879 HONDA
5 Team Kagayama 2m08.438 SUZUKI
6 Yamaha France GMT94 Michelin Yamalube 2m09.039 YAMAHA
7 BMW Motorrad France Thevent 99 2m09.066 BMW
8 Suzuki Endurance Racing Team 2m09.114 SUZUKI
9 TOHO Racing with MORIWAKI 2m09.132 HONDA
10 Honda Team Asia 2m09.321 HONDA
11 Honda Suzuki Racing Team 2m09.403 HONDA
12 Sweet Labo Motorrad39 with Hokkaido Sabeder 2m09.792 BMW
13 TEAMJP Dogfighter Yamaha 2m09.808 YAMAHA
14 Moto Map Supply 2m10.042 SUZUKI
15 EVA RT TEST TYPE-01 SynergyForceTRICKSTAR 2m10.145 KAWASAKI
16 Honda DREAM RT Sakurai Honda 2m10.814 HONDA
17 Confia Lunasol Japan 2m10.928 SUZUKI
18 MOTOBUM-Ishigaki Island BEEF & TUNA 2m11.031 HONDA
19 Bolliger Team Switzerland 8 2m11.237 KAWASAKI
20 Team Hashimotogumi 2m11.299 SUZUKI
21 Team R2CL 2m11.398 SUZUKI
22 RS-ITOH&ASIA 2m11.647 KAWASAKI
23 Honda Kumamoto Racing 2m11.770 HONDA
24 Team38 PS-K 2m11.806 KAWASAKI
25 Honda Hamamatsu ESCARGOT&PGR&H-TEC(E) 2m12.173 HONDA
26 Honda DREAM Takasaki B'WISE R.T 2m12.393 HONDA
27 Team EBATA 2m12.497 HONDA
28 Team Honda Technical College 2m12.516 HONDA
29 Honda TT Legends 2m12.604 HONDA
30 Team Tras 135 BMW 2m12.999 BMW
31 OVER&MotoItaliana SUZUKA 2m13.243 APRILIA
32 B-Square Racing & Osaka SAM-RT 2m13.292 KAWASAKI
33 YamashinaKawasaki & BusinessRalliart 2m13.296 KAWASAKI
34 Team Vital Spirit 2m13.573 BMW
35 Honda DREAM RT Wakayama 2m13.699 HONDA
36 Team Motosport 2m14.060 YAMAHA
37 Team Flembo Leader Team 2m14.159 KAWASAKI
38 Plus One MCRT 2m14.232 KAWASAKI
39 Iwata Racing Family 2m14.377 YAMAHA
40 DOGHOUSE & Higuchi Legal Office 2m14.541 SUZUKI
41 RS Garage Harada Himeji 2m14.544 KAWASAKI
42 NOI:Z & CWR Team.DDD 2m14.597 YAMAHA
43 Team Little Wing 2m14.670 BMW
44 Dogfish O-TEC Suzuka 2m14.705 HONDA
45 Team KARBAR cafe Racing from SHIGA 2m15.488 KAWASAKI
46 KTM Hamaguchi Bakuon Racing 2m15.563 KTM
47 Hamamatsu Team Titan 2m15.685 SUZUKI
48 Honda EG Racing 2m16.043 HONDA
49 Winner Z-Tech 2m16.104 SUZUKI
50 Team Sugai Racing Japan 2m16.598 DUCATI
51 Motorrad Toyota Nagasaka Racing 2m16.607 BMW
52 Banner Racing H.K.C 2m16.641 DUCATI
53 Honda Ryokuyoukai Racing 2m16.822 HONDA
54 Honda Sayama Racing&Hamamatsu&H-TEC (E) 2m17.118 HONDA
55 Hamamatsu 8H Team 2m17.525 YAMAHA

Championship standings

1 SRC Kawasaki 40 pts KAWASAKI
2 Monster Energy Yamaha-YART 33 pts YAMAHA
3 Suzuki Endurance Racing Team 28 pts SUZUKI
4 Yamaha France GMT94 Michelin Yamalube 24 pts YAMAHA
5 Team R2CL 21 pts SUZUKI
6 National Motos 19 pts HONDA
7 Maco Racing Team 17 pts YAMAHA
8 RAC 41 Yam Avenue Ipone 15 pts YAMAHA
9 Bolliger Team Switzerland 8 13 pts KAWASAKI
10 FMA Assurances 11 pts HONDA
11 Team Space Moto 37 10 pts SUZUKI
12 SPE Samurai 9 pts SUZUKI
13 Team Dunlop Motors Events 8 pts SUZUKI
14 Flembbo Dijimant Serbia 7 pts KAWASAKI
15 Team 18 Sapours Pompiers 0 pts KAWASAKI
16 Motobox Kremer Racing by Shell Advance 0 pts SUZUKI
17 Honda TT Legends 0 pts HONDA
18 DMT 35 0 pts KAWASAKI
19 BMW Motorrad France Thevent 99 0 pts BMW

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