The Coca-Cola Zero Suzuka 8-hour Endurance Road Race is quite simply Japan‰Ûªs race of the year. The 36th running is even more special than usual for Honda.
With 19 teams carrying the Honda badge, the aim is to claim a fourth successive victory in this uniquely gruelling and important endurance race. It would be the 26th 8-hour win for the company.
Honda does not field an official entry for the classic race, but puts years of production-racing success into specially prepared Honda CBR1000RR Fireblades for the top teams, while a number of independent teams both large and small provide backing in depth with similar machines.
The Suzuka 8-Hour Endurance race is the second of four rounds of the World Endurance Championship. But the iconic race at the world-renowned figure-of-eight F1 grand prix circuit is much more than that. Founded in 1978, it is by far the most important single motorcycle race in the Japanese industry‰Ûªs heartland, and a major annual event for engineers, riders, teams ‰Û_ and enormous crowds of fans.
Only a handful of the most successful regular World Endurance teams make the journey to Suzuka, and the vast bulk of the 63-team entry list comes from Japan. In some cases domestic racing stars join forces with past and present international riders. The right combination of talent is the first step to success in an eight-hour sprint where speed, endurance, consistency, and a dose of good luck are all vitally important.
From its foundation, the Suzuka 8-Hour Endurance has been a show-piece battleground for the Big Four Japanese manufacturers. Rule changes over the years mean it has become an important round of the World Endurance Championship, and for the 2013 race rival European machines will also be doing battle. But the original status remains intact. The 8-Hour is still primarily Japan‰Ûªs race of the year.
There are many potential pitfalls to be negotiated, in an event that is gruelling and exciting in equal measure. It offers many chances and frequent surprises. There are so many possible variables affecting the outcome.
Teamwork is crucial, with riders relying on fellow-riders, and precision spanner-work crucial during tyre changes and refuelling stops. Unlike MotoGP and Superbike championships there is open tyre competition, with Bridgestone, Dunlop, Michelin and Pirelli all involved.
Changing weather conditions and accident induced pace car intervention often consign pre-planned race strategy and tactics to history and hastily modified strategies come into play, but the relatively short race (compared with such as the Le Mans 24-Hour) means it is not far off a full-on sprint race.
Conditions make it exhausting for riders. Sweltering summer temperatures as high as 40 degrees C and humidity of 70 percent or more take a heavy toll. If all goes smoothly, each rider will do a session of just under an hour before resting, rehydrating, and undergoing whatever physiotherapy may be required. The third rider in the team generally takes a reserve role.
The trickiest and most atmospheric time is in the final hour, as darkness sets in and temperatures drop. The race starts at 11:30, and finishes at 7:30 pm.
The Suzuka circuit is part of Honda, and the 8-Hour Endurance almost as well. In 35 races Honda has taken outright victory 24 times. The list of winners is a personal and mechanical who‰Ûªs who, showcasing many of Honda‰Ûªs greatest riders and machines.
MotoGP World champions Mick Doohan, Valentino Rossi and Wayne Gardner are all past winners, Gardner four times ‰Û_ a record equalled by former GP rider Shinichi Ito. World Superbike Champion Colin Edwards has won three times for Honda, including in 2002 paired with the late Daijiro Kato.
The biggest Honda winner is another former grand prix rider, Tohru Ukawa, with a tally of five.
Machine-wise, the list is a roster of successful supersports machines, from the in-line four CB900 in the late 1970s to the RS1000 and CB900F that won in 1982. Ridden by Shego Ijima and Shinji Hagiwara, this was the first Japanese team to win the home event. The next Honda win two years later saw Mike Baldwin and Superbike champion Fred Merkel prevail on the first of the next generation of V4 engines, the RS750R.
The following RVF750 won five times before evolving into the legendary RC45, winning five times between 1994 and 1999. For the next four years the V-twin VTR1000SPW took over Honda victory duties, replaced the next year by the CBR1000RR still used today ‰ÛÒ a return to in-line four-cylinder configuration.
Honda‰Ûªs remarkable record includes 16 years of almost complete dominance in recent years. Since 1997, a Honda has won every year except two. Last year‰Ûªs victory by Jonathan Rea, Kosuke Akiyoshi and Tady Okada was the third in a row.
World Superbike star Rea returns this year to spearhead the 19 CBR1000RR teams taking part, with the same F.C.C. TSR Honda team again riding with the magic number ‰Û÷11‰Ûª that has graced the fairing of many Honda 8-Hour winning teams. This year the Isle of Man resident is teamed with four-times former Suzuka winner Riyuchi Kyonari. The Japanese international racer is three times British Superbike champion.
Rea‰Ûªs victory last year was shared with veteran Okada and Akiyoshi, who played a major role in developing this year‰Ûªs machine, and had expected to take part. Akiyoshi suffered a fractured femur earlier this season, and had to cede his ride to Kiyonari. Should the team achieve the ambition of a second straight win come true, it would be Kiyonari‰Ûªs fifth, putting him equal with Tohru Ukawa.
A strong challenge is expected also from the international MuSASHi RT HARC PRO team, where Takumi Takahashi and Leon Haslam are backed by Michael van der Mark. Japan‰Ûªs Takahashi and Britain‰Ûªs Haslam have both competed at GP level, the latter now a leading light in World Superbikes. Dutchman van der Mark is the reigning World Superstock Champion, currently competing in World Supersport.
The team is seeking a return to the winner‰Ûªs circle after three years: All Japan championship rider Takahashi won the 8-hour in 2010, and was third in 2009 and 2011.
GP winner and World Superbike rider Makoto Tamada (J) is teamed with Malaysian racer Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman in Honda Team Asia. Veteran Tamada is racing this year in the 600 Supersports Asian championship; his Malaysian team-mate is returning for a second Suzuka 8-Hour visit.
Fans‰Ûª favourite Shinichi Ito, nicknamed ‰ÛÏMr 8-Hour‰Û
