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Vermeulen 2nd in Suzuka 8 Hours, Brookes 6th
Australian star Chris Vermeulen has finished a superb second in the 2005 Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in Japan, as Honda’s all-conquering CBR1000RR machine claimed the top six placings in the high-speed classic.
Vermeulen, an 8 Hour rookie, teamed with world Supersport campaigner, Katsuaki Fujiwara, to complete 201 laps of the famous Suzuka layout, three behind the second Seven Stars-liveried, factory Honda of Tohru Ukawa and Ryuichi Kiyonari. Another Australian, Josh Brookes (Yoshiharu & Idemitsu Maido Plus CBR1000RR), was sixth, while the all-Aussie combination of Warwick Nowland, Damian Cudlin and Paul Young (Yamaha Phase One Endurance YZF-R1) was 18th, despite a crash in the fourth hour.
Other than a fuel spillage which saw them to spend a whopping 45 seconds in the pits during one scheduled stop, Vermeulen and Fujiwara, who qualified ninth, enjoyed a trouble-free run in the event – aside from the omnipresent heat, with some heavy rain also thrown into the constellation.
“I truly understood that the 8 Hour race is the most difficult race in the world,” said 23-year-old Vermeulen, who is currently running second in the world Superbike title. “It was not so hot today, so it was not so difficult physically, although the conditions were still tough.
“It was the first time for me using Michelin rain tyres and it was very good. I wanted to push harder but didn’t want to crash. (Tadayuki) Okada passed me and he was very fast and I was thinking of following him, which I didn’t. A few laps later, he crashed.
“I said to Katsu ‘good luck’ when he went out for the last run. He did a great job.”
Meanwhile, Ukawa’s successful defence of the Suzuka 8 Hours crown on the #7 Seven Stars Honda has made him the most successful rider in the event’s history. He’s now won the iconic race five times in its 28-year history, moving clear of a deadlock with Australian Wayne Gardner, who was successful in 1985-86 and 1991-92.
It was also Honda’s 21st win in the 8 Hours, with its current unbeaten run extending back to 1997.
“Fantastic, the best machine, the best partner and the best team made it possible,” said Ukawa, a former MotoGP and 250cc GP rider. “My lap times were not so fast during the first stint, and then it started to rain during Ryuichi’s second run. But Ryuichi was stable and I wasn’t worried at all. I didn’t push too much during the last run. Five wins is a great record, but I hope Ryuichi will break it one day.”
Kiyonari handed over to Ukawa with a 10-second lead after the first four of racing and, despite some sustained pressure from the FCC TSR Zip-FM Racing Team (CBR1000RR), led by 38-year-old Japanese stalwart Shinichi Itoh, they never really looked like losing the battle.
That became even clearer in the fifth hour, when FCC TSR Zip-FM, the polesitter, was forced to pit with mechanical problems, eventually soldering on to finish 13th.
Meanwhile, Brookes and teammate Yoshiyuki Sugai circulated consistently all day and night – the race finishes at 7.00pm local time – in finishing sixth, one position ahead of the first full-time world endurance team – Castrol Suzuki (Keiichi Kitagawa, Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive, GSX-R1000).
However, Castrol Suzuki officially ‘finished’ third in the race, because only 23 of the 80-odd entries were qualified to earn points towards the world endurance title. Brookes, whose CBR1000RR was entered under JSB (Japanese Superbike) guise, wasn’t one of those, in addition to the three teams which finished ahead of him on the track: Auto Race-Harc Pro (Haruchika Aoki, Takeshi Yasuda), FCC TSR Dydo Miu Racing (Osamu Deguchi, Yasuke Tejima) and Masked Rider Hibiki Honda (Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Kazuki Tokodume).
Yamaha Phase One Endurance, as one of the permanent world endurance teams, could earn points, so despite finishing 18th in the race, collected points for a seventh place ‘effort’. Similarly, Castrol Suzuki’s seventh became an even more rewarding third place.
Phase One is now third in the world endurance standings on 37pts, behind Yamaha Austria Racing Team (Igor Jerman, Gwen Giabbani, Horst Saiger, YZF-R1, 46) and Castrol Suzuki (74). Two rounds remain: a 24-hour in Oschersleben (Germany) on August 13-14, and a 320km event at Vallelunga (Italy) on September 25.
For more information on the Endurance World Championship, visit http://www.worldendurance.co.uk/
