Av de ordinarie VM-teamen vann Yamah Austria före Phase One ( med Christer Miinin) och Fagersjö El på trejde plats.
Första icke-japanksa förare i mål var Joshua Brookes på en sjundeplats.
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Suzuka 8 Hour - Race Result
FCC TSR Honda No.778 Wins Suzuka 8 Hour - Toy Story Honda Second - Yoshimura Suzuki Third...
The 2006 Suzuka 8 Hour round of the FIM World Endurance Championship has been won by the No.778 FCC TSR Honda CBR1000RR of Ito and Tsujimura, with the No.101 Toy Story Honda of Konishi and Yasuda in second place and the No.12 Yoshimura Suzuki of Aoki and Watanabe third.
The FCC TSR bike led from the fourth hour, after the Toy Story Honda had led for two of the incident packed opening hours. Yamaha Blue Racing's Colin Edwards crashed after being clipped by another bike on the first lap. He remounted and began to work his way through the field from 52nd position but his bike had been damaged in the incident and stopped shortly afterwards. His team mate Haga did not even get to ride.
The two Seven Stars Hondas had both hoped to make it onto the podium by the end of the race but both jut missed out despite a series of lap records set late in the race.
World Endurance Championship leaders Suzuki Castrol had also been aiming for at least a podium finish but three crashes - two by Vincent Philippe and one by Keiichi Kitagawa - dropped them from a highest place of sixth in the first hour to an eventual 38th place. Bolliger Kawasaki were even more unlucky, suffering an unusual engine failure on the first lap.
Yamaha Austria, meanwhile, ran a faultless and consistent race to finish in 10th place (and first Yamaha across the line), just two laps ahead of championship rivals Yamaha Phase One in 17th place.
Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se ended up 24th after crashing and recovering in the final hour, Kawasaki Diablo were 31st after beating the Shell Endurance Academy back to 32nd and Suzuki Endurance Moto45 ended the race in 42nd place.
With only the Superbike, SuperProduction and SuperStock bikes scoring championship points, the good result for Yamaha and disappointment for Suzuki Castrol and Bolliger has closed the gap between leaders Suzuki Castrol and second placed Yamaha Austria to just 21 points, with 70 points still available.
The FIM Endurance Cup
Japan (with Seven Stars Honda No.7) has won the FIM Endurance Cup of Nations, with Austria (Yamaha Austria) second, Great Britain (Yamaha Phase One Endurance) third and Sweden (SuzukiFagersjo-el.se) fourth.
Quotes
Gwen Giabbani, Yamaha Austria: "I expected the race to be tougher because of my injury from Albacete, and also I thought it would be very hot this year, but it wasn't so bad. We had a good feeling on the bike, good physical conditions; it was okay for us."
Mandy Kainz, Yamaha Austria team manager: "Now we are twenty one points behind Suzuki Castrol, so the championship starts again from here. The next two races are 24 hours, and anything can happen. Suzuki had bad luck here and we had good luck, and now the championship is really close. To win one of the next races would be my dream. I'm quite happy with this result, but this is my dream."
Damian Cudlin, Yamaha Phase One Endurance: "It's been very hard, but it always is hard here. The team have done a really good job because we've really struggled to get the right tyre here. Me and Warwick and Christer all put a big effort in for the race and we've had faultless pit stops from the rest of the boys. This result is a credit to everyone in the team. We're still in the championship..."
Niklas Calrberg, Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se team manager: "The race was very difficult. We had some bike problems in the beginning, and then Adrian Coates had a crash in the last session. We had to repair the left side of the bike so we lost some positions and had to win them back."
Alex Cudlin, Kawasaki Diablo 666: "It's been pretty good for my first Suzuka experience; I didn't realise how physical this track would be in the heat; it really took it out of me in the last stint."
Top Ten Provisional Finishing Positions
1st 778 - FCC TSR Zip FM - JPN - Honda CBR1000RR - T.Tsujimura, S.Ito 214 laps
2nd 101 - Toy Story RT Run & HARC Pro - JPN - Honda CBR1000RR - Y.Konishi, T.Yasuda +1:08.459
3rd 12 - Yoshimura Suzukiwith JOMO - JPN - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - N.Aoki, A.Watanabe +2:11.149
4th 11 - Seven Stars Honda 11 - JPN - Honda CBR1000RR - T.Okada, O.Deguchi +1 lap
5th 7 - Seven Stars Honda 7 - JPN - Honda CBR1000RR - R.Kiyonari, M.Tamada +1 lap
6th 04 - Masked Rider Kabuto Honda - JPN - Honda CBR1000RR - T.Yamaguchi, K.Tokudome +3 laps
7th 18 - Team Yoshiharu Yokkaichi - JPN - Honda CBR1000RR - Y.Sugai, J.Brookes +4 laps
8th 5 - Trick Star & B-Line - JPN - Kawasaki ZX10R - N.Matsudo, R.Tsuruta +6 laps
9th 48 - FCC TSR Zip FM - JPN - Honda CBR1000RR - Y.Teshima, G.Kamada +6 laps
10th 07 - Yamaha Austria - AUT - Yamaha YZF-R1 - G.Giabbani, I.Jerman, S.Scarnato +8 laps