Yesterday, Honda announced that they would be cutting back on their motorcycle racing program, most notably withdrawing their factory team from the Suzuka 8 Hour race. Additionally, motocross and other off-road events will be dropped in order to cut costs, but we’ll miss Suzuka the most. The 8 Hour Suzuka race is a big deal for the Japanese Four. Each year Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki rope in their top riders from around the world to compete in the prestigious race, much to the chagrin of the riders who are usually enjoying their off-season time. Last year the race was won by Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari.
Honda’s withdrawal does not mean that there will be a lack of Hondas on the grid. Only the factory team won’t race this year, but the Honda spokeswoman told the press that they would still help the remaining Honda privateers.
The one piece of good news from the announcement was confirmation of Honda’s commitment to MotoGP. Honda “won’t quit the MotoGP,” she said, adding that though Honda would be scaling back its support for motorcycle racing in general, the one series this would not affect would be MotoGP.
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