Pre-Suzuka Tests at Mallory?...

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

In previous years, most of the bikes entered in the Suzuka 8 Hour race have competed in the Japanese Superbike or Formula Xtreme classes, leaving the permanent teams to score useful championship points despite relatively modest overall finishing positiosn.

For example, last year 15th place overall earned Phase One 16 points; the same result this year would net them just one point. Maco Moto scored 7 points for 25th place overall, and so on.

This year, the only teams not scoring points in the Formula WEC class are the handful of teams running in Superstock. All of the Japanese wild card teams will be competing for championship points; no easy ride for the permanent teams.

How many permanent teams will bring home points from Suzuka? My guess is no more than three. Prace Bets Now!

Fisher, Dogger, German Bight

The current weather forecast is predicting temperatures in the high twenties to low thirties Celcius, with a 60% chance of thundery showers during all four days of track activity. Temperatures will fall to the low twenties at night, but humidity will remain high.

At the Third Stroke

Practice begins on Thursday morning, although there have been free sessions on Wednesday afternoon before now. The teams are divided, by means of a lottery – into two groups to reduce the number of bikes on the track at any one time.

Qualifying takes place on Friday. With teams split into two groups and up to three riders for each team, that's a series of six sessions just to get all the riders out on track, and a total of twelve sessions to give each rider two qualifying attempts. Throw in the possibility of heavy thunder showers, and it can all get a bit random. There's also a brief night practice session on Thursday evening, as well as the obligatory pit walks.

The top ten teams then go through to Saturday's top Ten Trial “Attack” and “Jump Up” qualifying sessions to decide the final qualifying positions. Saturday also sees the Suzuka 4 Hour race for 600cc bikes, and the “8 Hours Eve Festival”, complete with cheerleaders and people dressed up as Manga characters.

Sunday's race starts at 11:30am local time, 3:30am BST and 4:30am CET. If there's live timing, we'll let you know how to find it. The race ends half an hour after sunset at 7:30pm (11:30am BST, 12:30pm CET). There's a warm up session before the race (to give Phase One a final chance to fit in their pre-race crash) and a podium ceremony for almost every team after the race.

Last Year

Details of last year's Suzuka 8 Hour can be found here: www.Race24.com/ suzuka.html

Race24 Moto Morini in Secret Tests

And finally... Word has reached us of the Race24 Moto Morini having been spotted under going secret pre-Suzuka tests at Mallory Park recently. Our top secret spy photos show the bike in action with a mystery rider putting the bike through its paces. We can't confirm his identity, but that helmet looks familiar and you might have noticed that a certain Mr Y*kio K*g*yama isn't riding the No.12 Yoshimura Suzuki this year. No one from the Morini team was available for comment...