AKIYOSHI SMASHES SUZUKA LAP RECORD
24 September 2005 - Suzuki Racing

Team Suzuki''s Kousuke Akiyoshi will start tomorrow''s sixth-round Japanese Superbike Championship round at Suzuka from pole position after smashing the lap record in today''s qualifying.

The MotoGP factory test rider, who has been involved in the on-going development of the GSV-R, set a time of 2.08.479 on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 as team mate Atsushi Watanabe recorded fourth position.

Said Akiyoshi: ''I have only worked in testing for the past seven years, but I wanted to race when I turned 30, so Suzuki Motor Corporation and Yoshimura offered to build me a machine for this race.

''I took a pole position this time but this is only qualifying. The most important thing is tomorrow''s race. Test riding the MotoGP bike has made me strong and I am not aiming just for the victory because this race is only my hopeful transgression from road to MotoGP! But I''d like to enjoy tomorrow and I hope get a podium. My true target is to become a MotoGP rider.''

Said Team Manager Fujio Yoshimura: ''We did this for Akiyoshi as we know he has a lot of talent. And Watanabe seems also to have received stimulation by Akiyoshi''s result so we hope for a good result tomorrow.''

1: Kousuke Akiyoshi (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2.08.479. 2: Shin-ichi Ito (Honda) 2.08.586. 3: Shin-ichi Nakatomi (Yamaha) 2.08.686. 4: Atsushi Watanabe (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2.08.791. 5: Takeshi Tsujimura (Honda) 2.09.058. 6: Tatsuya Yamaguchi (Honda) 2.09.191. 7: Naoki Matsudo (Moriwaki Honda) 2.09.307. 8: Chojun Kameya (Honda) 2.09.458. 9: Osamu Deguchi (Honda) 2.09.775. 10:Akira Yanagawa (Kawasaki) 2.10.213.

Report and photo: Hiro Nakamura.

www.suzuki-racing.com

More News
  For September 2005
  From Suzuki Racing
  For Superbike
  Biker247.com Home Page