YOSHIMURA 4TH ON SUZUKA GRID
30 July 2005 - Suzuki Racing

Yoshimura Suzuki''s Atsushi Watanabe and Yukio Kagayama raced their GSX-R1000 into fourth place in the one-lap Special Stage qualifier for the Suzuka 8 Hour World Endurance round in Japan, which takes place tomorrow.

Kagayama''s time of 2 minutes 08.071 was just over half a second off pole setters Takeshi Tsujimura and Shin''Ichi Itoh (Honda).

Suzuki Endurance Racing Team''s Suzuki Castrol will start in seventh position after team rider Vincent Phillipe crashed heavily. But, following a quick repair, team mate Yukio Kagayama posted a time of 2 minutes 09.616.

The WSB Superpole-style event was run in hot conditions and in front of a crowd of 41,000.

Yoshimura Suzuki Team Manager Fujio Yoshimura said: ''We have the perfect set-up for the race. Yukio''s lap time was better than our expectations and we are completely ready for 8 hours and hopefully a win.''

SERT boss Dominique Melliand added: ''We hope for a good race tomorrow. We hope win this race and 2005 Championship.''

Final starting grid:

1: T.Tsujimura / S.Ito (Honda) 2''08.071.
2: R.Kiyonari / T.Ukawa (Honda) 2''08.565.
3: T.Yamaguchi / K.Tokudome (Honda) 2''08.628.
4: Atsushi Watanabe / Yukio Kagayama (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2''08.657.
5: S.Nakatomi / W.Yoshikawa (Yamaha) 2''09.033.
6: O.Deguchi / Y.Teshima (Honda) 2''09.336.
7: Keiichi Kitagawa / Vincent Phillip (Suzuki Castrol) 2''09.616.
8: C.Vermulen / K.Fujiwara (Honda) 2''09.744.
9: T.Hamaguchi / S.Moriwaki (Honda) 2''10.068.
10: N.Matsudo / L.Camier (Honda) 2''10.139.

Photos by Hiro Nakamura/ David Reydondeau

www.suzuki-racing.com

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