Haslam Wins Suzuka 8Hr – Schwantz gets 3rd!

Leon Haslam teamed with fellow Pata Honda rider Michael Van Der Mark, and experienced Japanese racer Takumi Takahashi won the legendary Japanese race at the weekend with the Musashi HARC-Pro Team.

Jonathan Rea (Haslams Team Pata WSBK team mate) was also in the hunt but was forced to retire after 3hrs as his team mate Ryuichi Kiyonari crashed and the damage sustained to the FCC TSR Honda team’s CBR1000RR was too much to continue. A great shame as the Ulsterman was a real favourite for this years race.

The Musashi team inherited the lead, which they extended to one lap over their nearest rivals and held it to the chequered flag, despite rain falling at Suzuka during the final 40 minutes. Haslam, 30, whose father Ron was runner-up in the 1979 running of the 8-hours race, becomes only the second British rider to win it in as many years.

Leon has had a difficult 2013 season in WSBK having broken his leg and really is still on the mend but said: “This means so much after the tough season I’ve had. I just want to say thanks to the whole Musashi HARC-Pro team.” Haslam and Rea will be back in action this weekend at Silverstone circuit in WSBK.

Screen shot 2013-08-01 at 13.44.27

The main story of the whole weekend was of Kevin Schwantz the 1993 GP 500cc Champion, having announced that he was going to enter the historic race put journo’s into a frenzy. It was a real battle to really make it happen because of contractual obligations but they managed it. Kevin recently raced in the US completing an 8hr event and was faster than US rider Blake Young so the Suzuki Team knew they had a serious rider and it was not just a PR stunt. Almost 20-years after his last 500cc rostrum the Texan joined Nori Haga & Yukio Kagayama on the podium taking 3rd – truly fantastic and only 1 lap behind the winners. No number 34 other than on his leathers, Schwantz did however wear a Wayne Rainey replica helmet throughout the race, as in tribute to his great 500GP rival.

Schwantz, said: “I know this race is not easy to win. But this time Yukio made a very good team. This was the only condition that I asked of him coming to Japan to enter this race again. He has changed his Japanese Superbike team to a World Endurance top contender. Yukio’s effort was great! I tested so many tyres and set-ups for the bike and we found a lot of potential.

“In the race, I only did one stint but I really enjoyed racing with the young Japanese riders. We got third place for the race and thank you to every one of our team staff. Yukio said to me ‘You are my idol!,’ but I would like to say to Yukio ‘You are a Superstar!” Yukio said “It feels unbelievable to be on the podium with my hero Kevin Schwantz!”

Once a legend always a legend.

Classifieds Archive

£410000

£54000

POA

SOLD

SOLD

$1000000

$3000

POA

$399500

$115000

$25000

$17000