July 31 : Yoshimura Suzuki 3rd at Suzuka

Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Nobuatsu Aoki and Atsushi Watanabe raced their GSX-R1000 into third position in the Suzuka 8-Hour World Endurance fifth round as reigning World Champions Suzuki Castrol crashed three times, finished a lowly 38th, but still came away with a 21-point lead in the series
 

Yoshimura’s Aoki started in seventh position, moving to fourth on the fifth lap when Yamaha’s Colin Edwards crashed out Watanabe took over after an hour and moved into third position, where they stayed for the remainder of the race.

Suzuki Castrol rider Vincent Philippe crashed twice and Keiichi Kitagawa once during the event. Philippe, who dropped the SERT GSX-R1000 when holding ninth position said: “I don’t know why I crashed. But the pace of the race was very crazy!”

After a change rider to Keiichi Kitagawa in 60th position, another fall cost a lot of time to repair their GSX-R.

Said Kitagawa: “Vincent and I lost the front end and crashed. It was slow but the damage was big.”

Fujio Yoshimura – Yoshimura Team Manager:
”Nobuatsu and Atsushi made a big effort in this race, but there was much rain in Suzuka before race-week so we couldn't test enough. We didn't find a good set-up for the bike unfortunately but third fastest isn't so bad. We are proud but unhappy to be honest. This isn't the end though and we are starting today in preparation for next year's Suzuka 8-Hours.”

Dominique Meliand – SERT Team Manager:
”Today has been a very strange race for us. Vincent made two and Keiichi made one crash but we don't understand why. We couldn't find a good set-up for the bike in this race because we had a lot of rain before the race. Suzuka is very special and a very difficult race. It is not Endurance! But we have a good points-advantage in the championship. We aim to be World Endurance Champions again this year.”


Results:
1. TSUJIMURA/ Shin-ichi ITO (TSR-Honda CBR) 214 Laps
2. Yoshiteru KOKNISHI/ Takashi YASUDA (HARCPRO-HondaCBR) 214 Laps
3. Nobuatsu AOKI/ Atsushi WATANABE( Yoshimura-SUZUKI GSX-R) 214 Laps
4. Tady OKADA/ Odsamu DEGUCHI (Honda CBR) 213 Laps
5. Ryuichi KIYONARI/ Makoto TAMADA (Honda CBR) 213 Laps
6. Tatsuya YAMAGUCHI/ Kazuki TOKUDOME (Honda DREAM CBR) 211 Laps
7. Yoshiyuki SUGAI/ JOSHUA BRUKS (Honda CBR) 210 Laps
8. Naoki MATSUDO/ Ryuji TSURUTA (Kawasaki ZX10R) 208 Laps
9. Yusuke TEJIMA/ Gaku KAMATA (TSR Honda CBR) 208 Laps
10. Igor JARMAN/ Gwen JOVANNI /Sebastian SCALNATO (YAMAHA AUSTRALIA) 206 Laps

Championship Points: 1 Suzuki Castrol 115, 2 Yamaha Austria 94, 3 Team Fagersjo-el Suzuki 68, 4 Yamaha Phase One Endurance 67, 5 Bolliger Team Switzerland 58,