2024 Suzuka 8 hours
Fourth Practice
The first practice session for the 2024 Suzuka 8 Hours took place in good weather conditions on Wednesday, apart from a bit of rain in fourth practice, allowing teams to test their setups in the wet.
Team HRC and Japan Post trio Takumi Takahashi, Johann Zarco and Teppei Nagoe won with a five-run best of 2:06.119.
Ducati Team Kagayama’s Ryo Mizuno, Hafizh Syahrin and Josh Waters were second fastest on Wednesday. They clocked a 2:06.724 on Wednesday but came through the two-day official test last month with a very impressive 2:05.162. Waters, 37, has finished second twice at Suzuka and is aiming to go one better this year.
For comparison, the qualifying record was set last year by Tetsuta Nagashima on his Team HRC Fireblade with a time of 2:04.942. The lap record was set in 2019 by Jonathan Rea with a time of 2:06.805 on his way to victory for Kawasaki Racing Team, alongside Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu.
2024 marks Ducati’s first serious attempt to win the iconic event in more than a quarter of a century. The Italian manufacturer’s best finish at the event was in 2011, when Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Hiromichi Kunikawa and Ken Eguchi finished tenth on a TOHO Racing 1098 R. The last time Ducati entered Suzuka with serious factory support was in 1991, when current Ducati Lenovo MotoGP team manager Davide Tardozzi teamed up with Belgian Stéphane Mertens on an 888 RS that was retired after 26 laps.
Adrian Monti
Ducati Kagayama Team Performance and Electronics Engineer
“After two very good first tests where we showed consistent pace and finished fastest, yesterday we explored a few different options and ended up in second place. With a team best time of 2:06.7, all our riders were competitive and we are happy with the results of the day.
We took advantage of the wet weather to make it better for all drivers if it rained during the race.“ .
FIM Endurance World Championship leader Yoshimura SERT is third on pace ahead of reigning world champion YART. Just a single point separates the two teams in the race for the championship.
FCC TSR Honda was fifth faster than Team Suzuki CN Challenge. While Josh Hook has won two World Endurance Championships with FCC TSR, he has yet to win the Suzuka 8 Hours with the French-based team.
Josh Hook – FCC TSR Honda France
“There is no easy part of the track. Suzuka is the most physical and demanding track you will ever be on. It is all left and right and you don’t really get a break there and that makes it even more difficult because it is so hot. It was just a tough weekend for everyone. We all know how hot and humid it is, racing there is not fun. But the Suzuka 8 Hours is the race I look forward to the most every year. Last year I was unlucky not to be able to compete due to injury so I am very happy to be back. The Suzuka 8 Hours is the home race for the team and Honda and we have a great bike so I am confident we can do well.“ .
Anthony West was racing at Suzuka for the AutoRace Ube Racing Team alongside Takuya Tsuda and Barry Baltus and the team finished in the top ten on Wednesday.
Max Stauffer is the fourth Australian to race at the event this year. The 20-year-old first turned a wheel at Suzuka a few weeks ago with Team Kodama, alongside teammates Yuta Kodama and Riki Sugawara. Stauffer was still pretty tired after leaving Morgan Park Raceway last weekend, so he didn’t cut too many laps on Wednesday. The team finished 13th on the grid on Wednesday. Max’s father Jamie has raced at Suzuka seven times, with a best finish of fifth.
Today, Thursday, is track practice, technical checks and various other procedures and promotional activities ahead of qualifying starting on Friday. Temperatures hit a high of 30 degrees yesterday at Suzuka. The highest temperature is expected to be 33 degrees on Friday, followed by 33 degrees on Saturday and a high of 35 degrees on Sunday with just a 20 percent chance of rain.
After the Second Qualifier on Friday afternoon, the top 10 teams will enter the Top 10 Qualifier on Saturday afternoon after the final practice session.
Each team will have two riders, each will run one lap to set a time after the warm-up lap. The 10th fastest team after the second Qualifier will go first, the fastest team from the qualifier will run last in the Top 10 Trial.
The lap times of the two riders from each team are then combined to complete the final starting grid for Sunday’s 8-hour race. The 5-4-3-2-1 qualifying points are awarded after the Top 10 practice round rather than after the completion of the second qualifying round, as is the case at other EWC events.
The 45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours was the third round of the FIM Endurance World Championship.
Honda has 29 wins at the Suzuka 8 Hours. Yamaha is second with eight wins, while Suzuki has five and Kawasaki has two. No European manufacturer has ever won the Suzuka 8 Hours.
Click here for a list of past winners and a brief history of the Suzuka 8 Hours.
