Honda have withdrawn from the 2009 Suzuka 8 Hours.
"Our works team will not participate this year. It may come back next year," a Honda Motor spokeswoman said.
If anything shows the effects of the credit crunch on racing, this is it; the Suzuka 8 hours is - in Japenese eyes - THE premier event in the country. The amount of money and resource thrown at it is huge.
On an aside, it is a real shame to see the state that Endurance racing has fallen into. A couple of races in France, the Oschersleben 24 hours now seems to be an 8 hour sideshow, Suzuka now has few international teams and any other races are a bit of an afterthought. A decade of development of the series has been lost. As someone who worked for Race24 and then the official Endurance Championship site, it really kicks you in the guts to see what a mess has been made.
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