The Suzuka 300km race, the pre-Suzuka 8 Hours race was held yesterday and while Kagayama won the event, Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari, riding for the DREAM Honda Racing Team finished a close second in the 52 lap-race.
Jonathan Rea finished fifth place. Checa had set second best time of 2’ 08m 240s during the timed practice which took place on Saturday. Yoshimura Suzuki men, Kosuke Akiyoshi and Yukio Kagayama snatched pole position, Akiyoshi with a lap time of 2m 08.052s.
At 13:00 local time, the riders made the traditional Le Mans style start. Kiyonari made a good start but at turn three a multiple crash involving eight riders, Rae, who won the corresponding race last season, and fellow Honda rider Leon Haslam among them, brought out the red flag.
Haslam, was sidelined for the rest of the day. The delayed start took place at 13:50 and it was Kiyo who again made a good start followed by the two Yoshimura Suzuki’s of Daisaku Sakai and Kosuke Akiyoshi. Akiyoshi passed both Kiyonari and Sakai on lap four and from then on led the field until the rider change over.
Kiyonari battled with Sakai for second place till the end of his stint. Akiyoshi passed his Yoshimura machine to Norio Kagayama and Kiyonari the CBR1000RRW to Checa. At that time the difference between the two was more than 15 seconds.
From that point on Checa mounted a superb fight back, lapping in the 2m 09s bracket continuously. It looked like the battle between the top two would be decided at the finish line, but the inevitable back markers played a telling roll in the proceedings hampering Checa’s
progress in the later stages denying the Spaniard the potential opportunity of a race victory.
Checa crossed the finish line a mere 2.336 seconds down on Kagayama. Third place went to the Yoshimura of Daisaku Sakai and Atsushi Watanabe. Yamaha rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga, who rode the race on his own, finished fourth, with the DREAM Honda Racing Team pairing of Rea and Teshima fifth.
After the race, Checa said: “I always want to win races. So it was disappointing to finish second but considering I was riding new machine with new partner using Bridgestone tyres for the first time, it was not so bad to finish second. We found out the issues we have to solve by the 8-Hour race. We must improve handling. When I was catching up Kagayama,I was trying more than 100%. But there were many back markers and that would easily change a second or so of my lap times. Still I was pushing hard to put pressure on Kagayama.”
Rea added: “When the big crash happened, someone cut across me and I closed the throttle. I crashed instantly. We had to start with the spare machine and I made quite good start. Kiyo was in front of me and two Yoshimuras passed me. At least the team now knows what we must improve for the 8-Hour race and that is good thing.”
Further down the field was Cal Crutchlow on the Moriwaki Motul bike who managed a eighth-place finish. He said: “It was my first race at Suzuka and I am quite satisfied with the way I rode. It was a good experience for me. This was my first race with Yamaguchi and we found that we both like the bikes set-up in similar ways. Next stop – the 8-Hour.”
Suzuka 300km Results
Pos / Team / Riders / Laps / Bike / Time
1 / Yoshimura Suzuki with JOMO / Kosuke
Akiyoshi(25 laps)/Yukio Kagayama (27 laps) /
52laps / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / 1:54'03.706 / 159.23km/h
2 / DREAM Honda Racing Team 11 / Ryuichi
Kiyonari(25 laps)/Carlos Checa(27laps) / 52 laps
/ Honda CBR1000RR / 1:54'06.042
3 /Yoshimura Suzuki with DensoIRIDIUM POWER /
Daisaku Sakai(25 laps)/AtsushiWatanabe(27 laps) /
52laps / Suzuki GSX-R1000/ 1:54'47.077
4 / YSP PRESTO Racing / Katsuyuki Nakasuga(52
laps) / Yamaha YZF-R1 / 1:55'02.192
5 / DREAM Honda Racing Team 33 / Jonathan Rea(24
laps)/Yusuke Teshima(28 laps) / 52 laps / Honda CBR1000RR / 1:55'15.704
6 / TEAM GREEN / Akira Yanagawa(52 laps) / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 1:55'17.066
7 / F.C.C.TSR / Takeshi
Tsujimura(25laps)/Shinichi Ito(27 laps) / 52 laps
/ Honda CBR1000RR / 1:55'57.020
8 / Moriwaki MOTULRacing / Tatsuya Yamaguchi.(25
laps)./Cal Crutchrou(27laps) / 52 laps / Honda CBR1000RR / 1:56'07.926
9 / Team Sakurai Honda / Kazuma Tsuda(51 laps) /
Honda CBR1000RR / 1:56'02.526 / 1Lap
10 / Y’s gear racing / Yuji Sato(31 laps)/Yuichi
Takeda(20 laps) / 51laps / Yamaha YZF-R1/ 1:56'06.142
