The biggest race on the calendar for the Japanese factories happened this weekend, though it's pretty hard to follow what's going on in Europe as we get highlights only at some point in the future.
Some of the top MotoGP and WSB riders do this race because it's a sure fire way of gaining favour with the big four factories.
This year we had Carlos Checa and James Toseland as the big European names. Johnny Rea from BSB was a substitute. The big Japanese names there included WSB star Yukio Kagayama and BSB leader Ryuichi Kiyonari. Leon Camier was also there on a Moriwaki Honda.
Difficult to follow the race but it went badly wrong for HRC Honda adding to their difficult year, Toseland binned it taking him and his partner Kiyonari out of the race within the first hour. Then Carlos Checa and former GP racer Tady Okada got a 30 second penalty, which left the top Suzuki of Kagayama and Akiyoshi in a lead they kept until the end.
So congrats to Suzuki on ending the domination of the race by Honda which goes all the way back to 1997 (Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga won it in 1996 on a Yamaha). This is Suzuki's first win since 1983. <clap> <clap> <clap>
Also a round of a applause for Leon Camier who came 5th on what I think is his first attempt < <clap>
Whilst we in Europe don't pay too much attention to it, it really matters to the Japanese and Honda will be really cheesed now. It won't do much for JT's chances of getting a MotoGP bike from them next year.
Result here for those interested:http://www.race24.com/. A fuller race report will probably be on Crash later on.
almost certain its Camier's second attempt
this has a section on Camiers 2005 apperance. So maybe even third time...
http://www.racecorporation.co.uk/Suzuka_2005.htm <doh>
OK, so I knocked up the post in 5 minutes. Glad to be corrected. It' s still a decent result though.
oh yes, i quite agree its a fab result for him. I just remember some BSB commentry about his fantastic previous performances... call me pedantic... Everyone else does.... <roflmao>
I thought it was his first year because this is his debut year in the Superbike class in BSB, but now I'm thinking about it, I can get some vague recollection of him racing there before.