SUZUKI CASTROL INCREASE SERIES LEAD
31 July 2005 - Suzuki Racing

Suzuki Castrol has extended its lead in the World Endurance Championship after finishing as the top full-time series entry at today''s third round at Suzuka in Japan.

Keiichi Kitagawa and Vincent Phillipe overcame several crashes during the weekend on their SERT GSX-R1000 to post seventh position overall and increase their series advantage from 19 to 28 points.

Watched by an estimated crowd of more than 140,000 over the four days, the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hour began in sunshine, but then ran into rain at the two-hour mark.

Honda''s Ryuichi Kiyonari got a holeshot from Takeshi Tsujimura (Honda) and Yoshimura Suzuki''s Yukio Kagayama.

Kagayama moved to second on the first lap and within 2.7 seconds of the Honda rider, but this slipped to 17 seconds after the first hour when Japanese Superbike ace Atsushi Watanabe took over the Yoshimura machine and a fire onboard forced a long pit stop and the team dropped down the leaderboard to 14th.

Heavy rain caused several crashes including SERT rider Kitagawa on lap 60, although Kagayama moved the Yoshimura up through the ranks from 13th to sixth position, when he handed back to Watanabe.

Watanabe then fell on his second lap, half-way into the race, forcing a 15-minute pit stop that dropped them down to 20th position.

After six hours, Kitagawa and Vincent had moved up to fifth place but dropped two places in the closing stages, choosing to ride for points, rather than risking a further crash.

Said SERT Team Manager Dominique Melliand: ''It was very tough race! Unfortunately, Keiichi crashed but that is a World Endurance Racing. We repaired the bike very quickly and we did a good race. We did not win the Suzuka 8-Hour but we scored good points for the championship.''

Yoshimura Team Manager Fujio Yoshimura said: ''We had many accidents after the rainfall and the burn-up of our exhaust pipe. We didn''t have a good result but our team did a great job. I guess that the Suzuka 8 Hours is a very special race which is very difficult to win, but today we start planning to win the 2006 Suzuka 8 Hours.''

SUZUKA 8 HOURS WORLD ENDURANCE RESULT:

1: R.Kiyonari / T.Ukawa (Honda) 204laps - 8:01''22.351.
2: C.Vermeulen / K.Fujiwara (Honda) 201 laps.
3: H.Aoki / T.Yasuda (Honda) 200 laps.
4: O.Deguchi / Y.Teshima (Honda) 199 laps.
5: T.Yamaguchi / K.Tokudome (Honda) 198 laps.
6: Y.Sugai / J.Brookes (Honda) 197 laps.
7: Keiichi Kitagawa / Vincent Phillip (Suzuki Castrol) 196 laps.
8: Hiroaki Kawase / Akira Tamitsuji (MotoMap WIS SUZUKI) 195 laps.
9: G.Giabbani / I.Jerman/ H.Saiger (Yamaha) 194 laps.
10: Yukio Kagayama / Atsushi Watanabe (Yoshimura Suzuki) Suzuki 193 laps.

Report and Photo: Hiro Nakamura

www.suzuki-racing.com

More News
  For July 2005
  From Suzuki Racing
  For Enduro
  Biker247.com Home Page