Photos: © 2019 Steve English – All Rights Reserved
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Episode 110 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a special one, as it previews the 2019 Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race. This means that we see Steve English joined by Jensen Beeler on the mics, as they are our Suzuka specialists.
Looking ahead to the final round on the 2019 FIM Endurance World Championship calendar, the guys preview the Suzuka 8-Hours for us.
Another year and another Suzuka 8 Hours. This year’s edition promises to be unlike any another in recent years.
Honda and Kawasaki are ready to take a shot at Yamaha, and Suzuki is once again lurking in the background with a package that could spring a surprise.
Yamaha returns as the four-time defending champion, with an unchanged lineup on the #21 Yamaha Factory Racing Team machine.
Katsuyuki Nakasuga missed last year’s edition after a crash ruled him out of the race, but the Japanese star is back in action this year and feeling confident. Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark split the duties last year and return this year, but there’s been changes to the R1 for this year’s race.
The Suzuka 8-Hours is around the corner. Testing is already underway for some of the leading riders, and it will only ramp up in the coming weeks.
Flying back and forth to Japan isn’t easy for anyone, but it is what is needed if you will be able to challenge at the great Japanese race.
The past weeks saw a host of announcements for rider lineups, with some interesting developments for what we will see on the last weekend of July.
The 8-Hours is the biggest race on the calendar for the Japanese manufacturers, and still the race that has the biggest impact on a rider’s fortunes with them. Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Honda have now all announced their top teams, but what does it mean?
If you were hoping to get your hands on a Yamaha YZF-R1 GYTR superbike, well…you have probably missed your chance.
A limited production of only 20 motorcycles, the Yamaha YZF-R1 GYTR sales window was open for less than 24 hours, before the bike completely sold out.
Based off the machine that won this year’s Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race, which in turn is based off the original R1 livery design from 1999, the Yamaha YZF-R1 GYTR is quite the looker and it comes with a bevy of go-fast parts.
The Yamaha YZF-R1 GYTR is one special machine, and only 20 of them will be made worldwide.
That production number helps commemorate the fact that this is the 20th anniversary of the YZF-R1 superbike, and the bike also helps give a nod to the fact that this year Yamaha won the Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race an unprecedented fourth time in a row.
A track-only machine, the Yamaha YZF-R1 GYTR will be painstakingly built by members from the Suzuka-winning Official Yamaha Racing Team crew. Though it is littered with parts from the GYTR catalog and other sponsors, Yamaha is curious mum when it comes to any performance figures about the bike.
Episode 83 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and in it we talk mostly about Harley-Davidson’s big fat new bike road map announcement.
Before we get to that though, we talk some news: Triumph North America losing its COO, MV Agusta’s new Moto2 race bike, Aprilia’s rumored parallel-twin sport bike, and emission concerns in Europe & Japan, as well as California.
The conversation then turns to news from World Ducati Week 2018, as well as a recap from the Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race in Japan.
From there, we talk about Harley-Davidson – its ADV bike, its streetfighter, its custom model, and its electric lineup. We also talk about the company’s business plan going forward, and what we see in Harley-Davidson’s future.
There is a lot of ground to cover in this show, but thankfully we had plenty of caffeine to help us through it. Enjoy!
You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well.
We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.
In all our coverage of the 2018 Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race, the name Suzuki has woefully not been in much of the conversation.
This isn’t to say that the brand from Hamamatsu wasn’t present at this prestigious event, but its level of involvement and readiness certainly wasn’t on par with the other three Japanese brands.
Fielding the Yoshimura Suzuki factory-backed team yet again, this year saw a big milestone take place, as Suzuki’s endurance efforts are now being conducted on the current-generation superbike.
This has caused some issues in the paddock, most notably in the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT), which is Suzuki’s factory-backed team in the FIM World Endurance Championship.
The winningest team in the FIM EWC – by a considerable amount – SERT struggled during the 2017/2018 season, finishing 6th overall in the championship. Surely as they sort out the new GSX-R1000R, SERT will once again be on top of the game.
In the hunt at Suzuka, it was the Yoshimura Suzuki team that was carrying the banner for Suzuki, finishing 10th – of note, behind the Suzuki team of S-Pulse Dream Racing – IAI, which finished 4th.
A man on a mission, Steve was able to get a bunch of shots of the Yoshimura Suzuki bike before it took to the track. You should check them out, and if you haven’t already, you should see his captures of the Suzuka race bikes from Red Bull Honda, Yamaha Factory Racing Team, and Kawasaki Team Green.
Episode 78 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and in it we see Steve English and Jensen Beeler on the mics, as they discuss both this year’s Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race.
Perhaps the most important race to the Japanese manufacturers, the Suzuka 8-Hours is seeing a return to its former glory, with several manufacturers putting together truly factory teams.
The show covers this new dawn for the Suzuka 8-Hours race, as well as the action on the track, of which there was plenty. It may have been eight-hours long, but this was a proper sprint race, with only 30 seconds separating first and second place.
On the show we are also joined by Jonathan Rea and Michael Laverty, who shed a ton of insight into what it’s like riding the Suzuka Specials, the differences in tires at the Japanese track, and what it takes to win this iconic race. You won’t want to miss those conversations.
All in all, we think you will enjoy the show. It is packed with behind-the-scenes info, and insights from teams and riders in the Suzuka paddock.
As always, be sure to follow the Paddock Pass Podcast on Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to the show on iTunes and SoundCloud – we even have an RSS feed for you. If you like the show, we would really appreciate you giving it a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
