With the GP circus still in holiday mode, the Suzuka 8 Hour endurance race gets the opportunity to grab the world’s attention without distraction. Starting in the day time and finishing in the night time the 8 Hour is one of the most gruelling races on the WEC calendar. While other WEC events run for 24 hours, the Suzuka event is held in stifling heat and humidity and takes a heavy toll of riders and machinery. Australia has a fine tradition of participation in the event with several Aussie riders taking wins over the years. This year there are 7 Aussie riders taking part headlined by the current WEC Champion, Josh Hook (FCC-TSR Honda) pictured above. The Suzuka circuit is owned by Honda so the usual pressure will be on the top team to deliver for the factory. The Yamahas have won at Suzuka for the last 3 years so the pressure will be even more intense!
As well as Hook, we will have Josh Waters, (Suzuki) who will be competing in the Superstock 1000 class, partnered by Aoki and Linfoot. The three times Aussie Superbike champion is a battle-hardened veteran and will be aiming at a class win and a placing as high up in the overall placings as the team can get.
Mark Aitchison is on a Kawasaki, teamed with the veteran\t WSBK campaigner, Akira Yanagawa and current superbike rider, Tyosuki Iwato, who races for the factory Kawasaki Japan team. Aitchison is an incredibly versatile rider with a lot of experience so let’s hope that this strong team puts in a good showing.
Aaron Morris needs no introduction after his stellar performances at the Island Classic. He subbed for the Maxima BMW team at the last ASBK round at Morgan Park and is as sharp as a tack right now. Morris goes into the event with minimal preparation and two relatively unknown team-mates and, as well as that, will have to acclimatise to riding a Suzuki GSX-R1000. However, he has already proved that switching bikes is not an issue and the bike change should be the least of his problems.
Irish-born expatriate Paul Byrne was originally going to ride a 600 in the 4 Hour race but he has been drafted into the team’s big game riding an Aprilia V4 (for the first time) and it will be a steep learning curve for the likeable rider. However, Paul is brilliant at extracting the best performance out of a bike, his efforts in the Island Classic on a rather unfancied bike proving that.
WEC veteran (yes, I can call him that, he told me I could) Broc Parkes, again lines up with the YART team, the Austrian-based outfit facing off against the “factory” team again. Parkes is solid gold and always gives his best. In practice so far the YART bike has been at the pointy end so don’t be surprised to see it there at the end as well. Broc is winding down his distinguished career and confided to me that he feels very fortunate that the team keeps selecting him even though he is “old” I think they’d be crazy if they didn’t.
In other racing news, organisers of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb announced overnight that there will be no motorcycle class for the 2020 event pending a review of motorcycle competition at the venue. The death of Carlin Dunne at this year’s event was always going to be a difficult one for organisers to deal with but, having said that, riders and drivers have died at the event before and it has always gone ahead. It seems that they have bowed to the politically correct brigade which is a shame. Commentary on the net seems to suggest that the “review” will result in the 2019 event being the last time bikes compete at the venue. There is no doubt that speeds and the consequent danger have increased considerably since the whole course was tar-sealed a number of years ago, my feeling was then, and still is, that this was a retrograde step. Perhaps the answer is to dig up the tar and go back to it being a gravel course as it was?
On the local scene, St George MCC is running their prestigious 5 Hour Endurance Race at Easter Creek tomorrow with some pretty heavy-hitters entered. If you can get there you are assured of a great day’s entertainment.
WSBK silly season is already in full swing with Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista’s name being linked to a possible shift to Honda for 2020. This makes no sense to me as Honda don’t have a competitive bike at the moment and, even if they build one, it will take a season or two to get it right. Alvaro could find himself mimicking the disastrous move of his fellow Spaniard, Jorge Lorenzo, from Ducati to Honda in MotoGP and we know how well THAT went, don’t we?
Amazing how much news we can dredge up when there are no Grands Prix running, isn’t it?