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The 1st of two days testing at Suzuka for the 8 hour includes some of the best riders in the world drawn from Superbikes, Grand Prix and Super sport codes. Fastest time was set by Hitoyasu Izutsu, 250GP rider Tohru Ukawa, and Colin Edwards were 2nd and 3rd fastest respectively. These three were into the 2 minute 9 sec bracket.
Missing from the field was Noriyaka Haga who is off to Geneva to attend his appeal tomorrow (Friday).
The 1st days times have Simon Crafer down the field at 21st some 4 seconds behind the leader.
The real interest in the race though lies in the swapping of riders from one class to another ie Valentino Rossi stepping up to a Honda VTR1000SPW instead of his GP500 machine.
No doubt there will be some surprises in testing and in the race itself. With this years Superbike and GP seasons half over, riders will be starting to jockey for position in next year\'s teams.
1st Day times.
2 Hitoyasu Izutsu Kawasaki ZX-7RR 2’09.649
4 Tohru Ukawa Honda VTR1000SPW 2’09.842
11 Colin Edwards Honda VTR1000SPW 2’09.962
7 Akira Ryo Suzuki GSX-R750 2’10.034
71 Alex Barros RVF750RR RC45 2’10.353
8 Takeshi Tsujimura Yamaha OW02 R7 2’10.380
33 Shinichi Itoh Honda VTR1000SPW 2’10.458
7 Keiichi Kitagawa Suzuki GSX-R750 2’10.515
41 Wataru Yoshikawa Yamaha OW02 R7 2’10.595
33 Tady Okada Honda VTR1000SPW 2’10.856
10 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki GSX-R750 2’11.140
11 Valentino Rossi Honda VTR1000SPW 2’11.169
100 Makoto Tamada Honda RVF750RR RC45 2’11.319
2 Akira Yanagawa Kawasaki ZX-7RR 2’11.405
41 Norihiko Fujiwara Yamaha OW02 R7 2’11.565
3 Tamaki Serizawa Kawasaki ZX-7RR 2’11.919
8 Yuichi Takeda Honda VTR1000SP1 2’12.237
4 Daijiro Katoh Honda VTR1000SPW 2’12.456
3 Andrew Pitt Kawasaki ZX-7RR 2’13.058
10 Atsushi Watanabe Suzuki GSX-R750 2’13.144
8 Simon Crafar Yamaha OW02 R7 2’13.587
