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Suzuka 8-Hours

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One of our favorite events each year, the Suzuka 8-Hours is perhaps one of the most important races on the motorcycle calendar, as the Japanese brands jockey to prove who is the best on their home turf.

However, the legendary Japanese race is not immune to the global situation relating to the outbreak of the coronavirus, and from that we saw its original July race date moved  to the beginning of November.

Now with new concerns, the endurance race and finale of the FIM Endurance World Championship calendar has been unfortunately canceled altogether.

The Suzuka 8-Hours is traditionally a summer race, held in the sweltering heat of Japan – it is part of what makes Suzuka, Suzuka.

That won’t be the case this year though, thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, but there is good news as the iconic endurance race will remain as the season finale for the FIM Endurance World Championship, just with a slight reshuffling of the racing calendar.

Accordingly, the new date for the 2020 Suzuka 8-Hours will be Sunday, November 1st – moved from the originally planned July 19th schedule.

With Ducati joining the ranks of proper 1,000cc superbikes with the Panigale V4 R, it opens up a list opportunities that previously weren’t available to the Italian brand. One of those events is the Suzuka 8-Hours.

Of course, we already did see a Ducati Panigale V4 R at this year’s Suzuka race, but what we are ruminating about here is a full-factory effort from the Ducati Corse crew.

According to Paolo Ciabatti in his talked to Italy’s GPOne publication, the Ducati Corse Sporting Director, the idea isn’t off the table, though the circumstances of Ducati’s involvement in the Suzuka 8-Hours is very specific.

Episode 20 of the Brap Talk podcast is now out for your two-wheeled audio pleasure, and this gets us back on track after a bit of a summer hiatus.

As such, we talk about our two-wheeled adventures over the past few weeks. This means Shahin talks about his off-roading adventures in the Pacific Northwest, while Jensen talks about his racing with OMRRA, which includes a stint racing an Energica Ego electric superbike.

The guys also talk a bit about WorldSBK’s stop in Laguna Seca, as well as why the Suzuka 8-Hours is an amazing race (the 2019 edition certainly had no shortage of action).

Take a good look at it – this is the Suzuka 8-Hours race winning endurance bike that Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam took to victory this year.

As with any endurance-spec race bike, this Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR is a very special animal, and one can pore over the photos here looking at all the interesting modifications that go into a Suzuka-winning machine.

For us, our eyes always go towards the quick-change wheels and brakes, but there are interesting items on every corner of the motorcycle.

Eight hours, three teams, one (eventual) winner. This year’s Suzuka 8-Hours had it all, but it also showed again that the differences between Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Honda are such that each has to approach the race in different ways.

Yamaha opted for balance, Honda for an advantage in the pits, and Kawasaki on the pace of Jonathan Rea and consistency of Leon Haslam.

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For a brief moment, the Yamaha Factory Racing Team was a five-time winner (in a row, I might add) at the Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race.

That reality was eventually snatched away by the FIM Endurance World Championship race direction officials, who this weekend learned something new about their rulebook, but the race run by the factory-backed Yamaha team was no less impressive.

For nearly eight hours, the team’s three riders (Alex Lowes, Michael van der Mark, and Katsuyuki Nakasuga) kept in check the best efforts by the Kawasaki Racing Team and Red Bull Honda squads, and it wasn’t until the final stint that Alex Lowes lost track of a raging Jonathan Rea.

Episode 111 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is another special edition from the Suzuka 8-Hours. This means that we see Steve English joined by Jensen Beeler on the mics, as they are our Suzuka specialists.

Of course, the show has to start with a discussion about who actually won this year’s edition of the Suzuka 8-Hours, as the race’s conclusion, and the few hours after the checkered flag, were anything but straight-forward.

Race day at the Suzuka 8-Hours has no shortage of pageantry. The crown jewel in the FIM Endurance World Championship, the Suzuka 8-Hours might be the most important race in all of motorcycling, and it certainly holds that distinction in Japan.

With all that said, this year’s edition was truly a spectacle, as the three factory teams from Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha fought in close-quarters the entire race, giving fans quite the treat.

With a few seconds or less between them for almost the entire eight-hour race, we saw no shortage of passes and strategy, making this a race well-worth watching.

As expected, the result of the 2019 Suzuka 8-Hours was decided well after the podium ceremony for the Yamaha Factory Racing Team, with the factory Kawasaki team protesting Race Direction’s interpretation of the rulebook.

Agreeing with the Kawasaki Racing Team’s reading, the FIM concluded that because the race ended on a red flag, the results should be counted from the first full lap before the incident, which had KRT leading by a comfortable margin. 

This overrules Race Direction’s opinion that KRT failed to return to the pits five minutes after the race ended, which saw the Kawasaki team declared a non-finisher, and thus off the podium box.

As is often the case with the five round FIM Endurance World Championship, the season is going down to the wire at the Suzuka 8-Hours.

The Japanese showcase offers bumper points for the finale, so with only five points between the leading duo, Kawasaki France and the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT), there is still everything to fight for.

The TSR Honda outfit, last year’s world champions, have struggled this year and sits 23 points adrift, but they still stand a chance of the title courtesy of the points system that sees 45 points on offer to the winner this weekend.