2023-08-06 13:16:55
The final of the midsummer festival “Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race” (Suzuka 8 Hours) was held, and Team HRC with Japan Post achieved their second straight victory. Honda dominated the top four positions. Despite the forecast for rain from the evening, 6 hours passed in dry conditions, and Takahashi of Team HRC with Japan Post (Takumi Takahashi, Tetsuta Nagashima, Xavi Bierge) ran fast following completing 170 laps. Greg Black (Suzuki) was 2nd, and Kiyonari of TOHO Racing (Ryuichi Kiyonari, Takuma Kunimine, Ikuhiro Enokido) was in 3rd.
Among the Honda teams, Uramoto of SDG Honda Racing (Teppei Nagoshi, Naomitsu Uramoto, Haruki Noguchi) was 5th, and Ito of Honda Dream RT Sakurai Honda (Kazuki Ito, Daijiro Hiura, Akihiro Arakawa) was 7th. Di Meglio of FCC TSR Honda France (Mike Di Meglio, Alan Teche, Taran MacKenzie) was 9th, and Honda Asia-Dream Racing with SHOWA (Mohamed Zakwan Bin Zaidi, Andy Farid) was 10th. Izdihar, Nakarin Athirapwapa) will drive Zaidi. Despite the forecast for rain from the evening, 6 hours passed in dry conditions, and Takahashi of Team HRC with Japan Post (Takumi Takahashi, Tetsuta Nagashima, Xavi Bierge) ran fast following completing 170 laps. Greg Black (Suzuki) was 2nd, and Kiyonari of TOHO Racing (Ryuichi Kiyonari, Takuma Kunimine, Ikuhiro Enokido) was in 3rd. Among the Honda teams, Uramoto of SDG Honda Racing (Teppei Nagoshi, Naomitsu Uramoto, Haruki Noguchi) was 5th, and Ito of Honda Dream RT Sakurai Honda (Kazuki Ito, Daijiro Hiura, Akihiro Arakawa) was 7th. Di Meglio of FCC TSR Honda France (Mike Di Meglio, Alan Teche, Taran MacKenzie) was 9th, and Honda Asia-Dream Racing with SHOWA (Mohamed Zakwan Bin Zaidi, Andy Farid) was 10th. Izdihar, Nakarin Athirapwapa) will drive Zaidi. After 6:00 pm, information came in that it was raining at the first corner. The rain soon stopped and the track surface remained dry, but black clouds covered the 1st corner, making it look like it might rain at any moment. Elsewhere on the course, it was raining lightly, and red crosses were shown from the flagposts. Even so, the time of the top group did not change much. Takahashi, who cleared 178 laps at the top, recorded a lap time of 2:09.722. Still, rain tires are being prepared at each pit. The skies over the circuit began to darken, and just following 6:12 it started to rain. In order to change to rain tires, some teams began to instruct the pit stop. On the 184th lap, Takahashi’s time dropped to 2’34.548, but most of the top teams chose to stay on slick tires. On the other hand, SDG Honda Racing’s Noguchi and Honda Dream RT Sakurai Honda’s Ito pitted. Even though Takahashi slowed down, he took advantage of his large lead and continued to carefully accumulate laps. In difficult conditions, Kiyonari recorded a time of 2’21.870, more than 10 seconds faster than Takahashi’s time of 2’33.116, and put pressure on Brak who was ahead. After the light-on sign was issued and the car shifted to nighttime driving, Black changed to rain tires and pitted out, but fell on the out lap and lost a lot of positions. Black’s crash moves Kiyonari to 2nd place. The lap time was 2 minutes 26.877 seconds, which was faster than the rivals. On the 186th lap, he increased his pace to 2’15.635. Takahashi made a pit stop on the 189th lap, handed over to Nagashima, changed slick tires, and entered the course. Kiyonari came in 2nd, Takuya Tsuda (Suzuki) in 3rd, Noguchi in 4th, and Di Meglio in 5th. Ito was 7th, Zaidi 8th, and Watanabe of Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing (Kisuke Sakumoto, Ryo Mizuno, Kazuma Watanabe) 10th. On the 190th lap, Nagashima improved his time to 2’10.587, and Kiyonari in 2nd place recorded a time of 2’11.135. Noguchi followed Tsuda with a time of 2’12.675 and moved up to 3rd place on the 188th lap. Di Meglio, running in 5th place, also caught up with a time of 2’11.750, and Ito also moved up to 6th. The red cross flag continued to be waved, and the race progressed under conditions where it continued to rain. On the 193rd lap, Nagashima’s pace dropped to 2’17.471, but the lead remained unchanged. Kiyonari was 2nd and Noguchi was 3rd. Di Meglio was replaced by Teche and Kiyonari by Enokido, and each entered the course while maintaining their positions. On the 200th lap, Nagashima took the lead, followed by Enokido in 2nd, Noguchi in 3rd, and Teche in 4th. Marcel Schrotter (Suzuki) was 5th, and Arakawa was 6th. Fans in the stands start lighting penlights in the colors of the teams they support. With 30 minutes remaining, the rain stopped and it was a final battle. Nagashima cleared the 201st lap with a time of 2’10.841. Enokido also improved his pace to 2’09.772, and Noguchi passed in 2’12.045. Noguchi made a pit stop and finally changed riders to Nagoshi. After changing tires and refueling, he returned to the course in 3rd position. Nagashima cleared the race with 210 laps at the top. Enokido in 2nd, Nagoe in 3rd, Teshe in 4th, Arakawa in 6th, Izdihar in 8th, and Watanabe in 10th passed the control line in that order. With less than 15 minutes remaining, he continued to make laps in the dark. After 19:24, Nagashima made a pit stop on lap 215, refueled, and returned to the track in the lead. Nagashima, who jumped out as a checkered rider, completed the 216th lap without any danger and received the checkered flag with great joy, achieving consecutive wins for Team HRC with Japan Post. Takahashi won his fifth win in total, tying with Toru Ukawa for the most wins. With TOHO Racing in 2nd and SDG Honda Racing in 3rd, Honda dominated the podium. FCC TSR Honda France finished in 4th place, taking the checkered flag as the top team among the regular EWC teams. With Honda Dream RT Sakurai Honda in 6th, Honda Asia-Dream Racing with SHOWA in 8th, and Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing in 10th, seven Honda cars entered the top 10.
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