Honda Racing Corporation’s Carlos Checa earned pole position for himself and teammate Tadayuki Okada for the 30th Suzuka 8 Hours. Checa’s flying lap in the Special Stage session was 2:07.587. “I wanted to be on two minutes, seven seconds because, as you know, I run number 7 in MotoGP,” laughed Checa. “I think it was a fantastic lap. It’s quite a special moment for me, but in a little time I will forget about this and focus on tomorrow. When you finish second you think about where you could do better. Now I don’t need to think about that.”
Checa’s pay day was two million yen, or about usd$16,950.
Per the custom of the Suzuka 8 Hours, the Spaniard had to watch the remaining riders in the Special Stage while sitting on a make-shift throne.
“I didn’t know about this place and the chair. At first it reminded me of the one in Westminster Abbey. But this chair, it looks terrible. It was better sitting on the bike than sitting on the chair.”
Indeed, as at least five of the riders that followed Checa posted first segment interval times quicker than the MotoGP rider, but then lost the pace and finished slower.
“When I was sitting there and see that some riders were below my first and second segment times, I thought, 'okay, I did my best, I got a very good lap time. If someone improves, then well done.' But then I was able to keep my lap time.”
One of the riders that started his lap quicker than Checa’s was teammate Okada. However, Okada fell in Degner Curve and slid off the track.
“I just touched my engine on the apex,” said the uninjured Okada. “I was pushing, but not 100%. It was just 80%.”
Second in the Special Stage, and a small surprise at that, was Katsayuki Nakasuga. The Yamaha rider screamed through the first segment .49 seconds faster than Checa, but after the long back straight Nakasuga was .113 seconds off of Checa’s time. Nakasuga’s final lap time was 2:07.806 and moved his team five places up on the Le Mans starting line.
“I am so surprised by Nakasuga’s time," said a wide-eyed Norick Abe. “That is a good lap time, for sure.”
World Superbike star Yukio Kagayama placed the Yoshimura Suzuki third on the grid with a time of 2:07.969. Like Nakasuga, Kagayama went through the first and second segments with quicker interval times than Checa. “Our motorcycle is similar to Honda in the first part of the lap, but in the second part Honda are faster.”
Qualifying fourth, just .066 seconds off of Kagayama’s time, was British rider James Toseland on the second red, white, and blue HRC Honda.
“It was just okay, which annoyed me. It was nothing special,” shrugged Toseland. “I’ve got no experience on these Michelin qualifiers and I didn’t know exactly how much I could push them. There were a couple of corners in the second section that I didn’t push hard enough. I came out of them and thought, well, there’s a bit more grip to be had. I had to find that out on that lap, unfortunately.”
In the 20-minute practice session prior to the Special Stage, Toseland’s teammate Ryuichi Kiyonari waited too long to turn the bike over to Toseland for testing qualifying tires.
“I tried to test the qualifying tires, but Kiyo had some problems and by the time I got out, the checkered flag was out. I didn’t get the chance to do the lap.”
Kiyonari’s troubles continued into the Special Stage. The British Superbike champion sheepishly admitted to a case of nerves that resulted in pushing too hard and a missed shift exiting the motorcycle chicane between the Hairpin and Spoon Curve.
FCC Technical Sports rider Shinichi Ito (Honda) showed some of his old form with a time of 2:08.449. The six-time pole position holder for the 8 Hours moved himself and teammate Yusuke Teshima up from 10th to fifth.
Teshima caused controversy during the Special Stage by riding the full course on the cool down lap instead of taking a short cut to the pits. Sakurai Honda rider then Russell Holland found Teshima touring the circuit while on his flying lap.
“When I came around Dunlop and saw him in the middle of the track. I thought maybe there’s a problem or a red flag or something, so I shut down just a little bit. He was on the race line, but by the time I got to him he was out of the way. When I came in the team asked if he affected me, and I said just a little.”
The Sakurai Honda team immediately protested the incident, and the organizers instantly red flagged the session. This caught Yoshimura Suzuki rider Daisaku Sakai in the middle of his out lap, which resulted in further controversy.
“The organizers didn’t realize that qualifying tires need to be heated up on the warmers, and it takes a long time. But the affected teams, including our team, we just fitted one set of tires for each rider,” said Yoshimura Suzuki team owner Fujio Yoshimura. “We didn’t bring spares. Why they threw the red flag instead of a yellow flag, I don’t understand. But they just red flagged the whole thing.”
The delay ran one hour as team managers negotiated with the organizers on how to resume the Special Stage.
“We told them that we could go ahead if we start with the number-two rider,” said Yoshimua. “But the number two riders said that their tires were not warm yet. It just went on and on. It really affected the riders, for sure. Everybody was wondering why the re-start was taking so long.”
Holland was allowed a second run and produced his best lap time of the meeting. “Apparently I am the first guy in the history of Special Stage to do two laps. It was a good thing for me, as the second lap was much better. It was my fastest time here.”
The second factory Yamaha of Norick Abe and Jamie Stauffer finished ninth, with Yoshimura Suzuki of Sakai and Atsushi Watanabe dropping to tenth after standing fourth at the end of Friday.
A total of 70 teams will start the race on Sunday at 11:30am local time. Results
1. T.Okada/C.Checa, Honda, 2:07.587.
2. K.Nakasuga/N.Osaki, Yamaha, 2:07.806.
3. Y.Kagayama/K.Akiyoshi, Suzuki, 2:07.969.
4. R.Kiyonari/J.Toseland, Honda, 2:08.035.
5. S.Ito/Y.Teshima, Honda, 2:08.449.
6. T.Yasuda/Y.Konishi, Honda, 2:08.642.
7. K.Tokudome/G.Kamada, Honda, 2:08.855.
8. C.Kameya/R.Holland, Honda, 2:09.149.
9. N.Abe/J.Stauffer, Yamaha, 2:09.832.
10. A.Watanabe/D.Sakai, Suzuki, 2:10.006.
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Originally Posted by Brian d'marge
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