Yukio Kagayama and Kousuke Akiyoshi win the 30th ‘Coca Cola Zero Suzuka 8 Hours'

The ten-year Suzuka 8 Hour race-winning streak established by Honda came to an end today

© FIM. Suzuki Yoshimura with Jomo 34 put an end to a series of ten victories by Honda at Suzuka today. Yukio Kagayama and Kosuke Akiyoshi on their Suzuki Yoshimura 34 finished ahead of the Honda HRC 33 of Tadayuki Okada and Carlos Checa and the Honda FCC TSR 778 of Yusuka Teshima and Shinichi Itoh.

This victory for Suzuki in the thirtieth edition of this famous race marks a historical return for the Japenese manufacturer - the first eight Suzuka 8 Hours races were won by a Suzuki Yoshimura. Kagayama and Akiyoshi dominated today's head-to-head. This year's Suzuka 8 Hours began at high speed. On his third lap Shinichi Itoh on the Honda FCC TSR 778, winner of the 2006 Suzuka 8 Hours, set a fastest lap of 2'09.227. From the start a head-to-head battle took place between Yukio Kagayama on the Suzuki Yoshimura 34 and Ryuichi Kiyonari on the Honda HRC 11. Thanks to his better control at the first passing point, Kagayama forged ahead little by little and the Suzuki 34 then maintained its command over the full eight hours.

© Honda Pro Images. The second place of the Honda HRC 33 of Okada and Checa was well earned after they were forced to undertake a ‘stop and go' penalty following a premature start. The Honda 33 was in only ninth position an hour into the race. After having moved back to the head of the bunch, the pair fervently defended their second place in front of the Honda FCC TSR 778. "This was a great experience. Even if I am a bit tired, I am ready to return if I get asked again by a strong team", said Carlos Checa, who was riding in his first ever Suzuka 8 Hours.

Some of the pre-race favourites were surprised by the speed at the beginning of the race. The first victim was Takashi Yasuda on the Honda Kyubo Harc-Pro 73. Starting in sixth position, he fell half an hour into the race and the Honda 73 ended up at the back of the pack, finally finishing in 24th. Several minutes later the Yamaha 21 crashed while in eighth. It retook to the track an hour later in 68th place but another fall by Nobuyuki Osaki ended the team's chances of a podium finish.

Another favourite who fell victim to the beginning of the race was the Honda HRC 11, second behind the Suzuki Yoshimura 34. James Toseland's fall on his first lap also ended their podium hopes and the official Honda 11 did not return to the track at the home of HRC.

"It was my own mistake," admitted Toseland. "It was my third lap after switching from Kiyo, at Dunlop-Curve, I crashed because my front end tangled suddenly without any warnings. It was so strange and I could do nothing about it."

Kiyonari was a disappointed man deprived of the chance to fight for the win, through no fault of his own, and for the second year in succession.

"I think we were doing OK." Said Kiyonari. "I crashed during morning warm-up but that didn't make any difference. I was ready to race for 8 hrs so I thought the first hour was OK. If I have regret, I should have closed the gap with the leader. May be James was too eager to close the gap."

Faced with an armada of official and semi-official Japanese machines in the Open category (with the exception of the Honda FCC TSR 778 in the Superbike class), the permanent teams did not perform at their best. The leading result came from Suzuki Endurance Racing Team. Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa finished in seventh overall and second in the Superbike class. SERT claim 24 points and have consolidated their lead in the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship.

The Honda FCC TSR Eurosport Benelux, ridden by Satoru Iwata and Yoshiyuki Sugai, had an ongoing battle with SERT and eventually finished in eighth. The top 25 in the Superbike class included several of the permanent teams. Yamaha Phase One Endurance finished a respectable 15th, taking the 16 points to put them fourth overall in the classifications. Bolliger Team Switzerland finished in 18th, Diablo 666 Bolliger in 21st, and RMT 21 Racing in 24th.

The leading machine in the Superproduction class, Endurance Moto 38, finished in 29th ahead of Maco Moto who were 35th. In the Superstock class, the best performance came from Team LTG 57. Without Mickael Lalevée who was injured in the warm-up, Anthony Dos Santos and Amaury Baratin finished the eight hours in 45th position on their Yamaha.

There were mixed fortunes for the other permanent teams. Suzuki Sweden had braking problems and finished in 34th. Yamaha Austria were within the top twenty at the beginning of the race before of an engine overheating problem saw them fall back more than 30 places - Igor Jerman, Damian Cudlin and Steve Martin ultimately finished in 36th. Amadeus X-One lost time due to problems with their fuel tank and finished in 39th just ahead of Team Zone Rouge Yamaha. The final permanent team to register a point at Suzuka, RT Racing Team & Moto Virus, finished in 46th after a fall.

Finally the claim for least successful race goes to the Honda Sakurai 2. In sixth position one lap from the end, the Honda ridden by Chojun Kameya and Russell Holland returned to the pits without passing the chequered flag and were disqualified.