The 2018 Suzuka 8 Hours Is Upon Us

July 27–29 is the 41st Suzuka 8 Hours, and as always, it promises to be an unforgettable spectacle with thousands of fans, the trickest hardware, and some of the biggest names in production racing. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Suzuka 8 Hours to the Japanese factories. For the Big Four—Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki—it’s always been about touting engineering prowess. Who’s got the best rider, the biggest budget, the highest-profile sponsorship: None of that really matters here. It’s about “The Factory.” Throughout racing history, we’ve seen what happens when pride in engineering veers toward hubris and overlooks the value of the rider. I think here of Valentino Rossi’s motivation in moving from Honda to Yamaha in 2004. Motorcycle racing isn’t F1; the rider matters (oh snap!). While race teams enlist the best help they can, it’s almost like the factories would prefer robots to ride the bikes, so the engineers can take all the credit for themselves. Those pesky riders thinking they have a big part to play… In the beginning, the Suzuka 8 Hours was a race between prototype TTF1 machines and served as a proving ground for engineering ideas. When the race became production-based, as it is today, its significance didn’t fade. For engineers and race teams, Suzuka is both board exam and Super Bowl. It can be an engineer’s last rites or his springboard to MotoGP or WorldSBK. For every race fan, there’s a lot to watch out for. Here are a few key takeaways going into this year’s event.

Once again, Honda will attempt to break Yamaha’s recent stranglehold on the series. But this time it’s serious. For the first time in a decade, Honda is fielding a true factory team. Big Red has won the race a record 27 times, but Yamaha has won the last three. Honda will not be keen on being beaten on its home circuit four times in a row.

MotoGP rookie Takaaki Nakagami says as much: "I'm excited as a rider, and as a part of the Honda family, that Honda returns to the Suzuka 8 hours as a factory team for the first time in a decade. We have a winning team, and the bike has the potential, but more than that, the team has the desire to win. Everyone at Honda wants Honda to take back the Suzuka 8 Hours title. We unfortunately finished fourth last year, but now as a factory team, I with the other two riders will work together to win."

Reading between the lines, Nakagami’s comments make clear Honda’s frustration. The pressure is on.

To complicate matters, Kawasaki could very well steal the show as it brings out the big guns. More on that in a minute.

The 8 Hours is part of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and features all of that series’ stars and factory-backed teams. To leverage the best available talent, however, as per usual the factories are calling on some of their most talented racers from different series to give them the best chance of victory.

Red Bull Honda: In addition to Nakagami, Honda's factory Suzuka effort includes American PJ Jacobsen (replacing Leon Camier) and All Japan SBK racer Takumi Takahashi.

Yamaha Factory Racing Team: Yamaha reunites last year's winners, WorldSBK teammates Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark, and Yamaha stalwart Katsuyuki Nakasuga.

Yoshimura Suzuki: MotoGP test rider and former WorldSBK champ Sylvain Guintoli will ride with BSB's next big thing, Bradley Rey, and All Japan SBK series racers Takuya Tsuda (who's also Suzuki's MotoGP test rider) and Kazuki Watanabe.

Kawasaki Team Green: Kawasaki has an ace up its sleeve this year by enlisting WorldSBK champ Jonathan Rea. Not only is Rea the best Superbike racer in the world, but he won the 8 Hours in 2012. He's paired with BSB star Leon Haslam (who will replace Tom Sykes at KRT next year) and All Japan SBK racer Kazuma Watanabe.

That Jonathan Rea is taking part in the 8 Hour suggests how determined Kawasaki is to stamp its dominance on production-class racing. Kawasaki has only won the event once—in 1993 with riders Scott Russell and Aaron Slight—though it was runner-up the previous two years. Rea will be joined by his WorldSBK crew chief Pere Riba, who’s been helping the team prepare since the spring. Riba may be the missing piece of the puzzle; his role could be crucial in bringing home the victory.

“The test is really positive,” Rea said, following a test earlier in the month. “A really good sign is that I jumped on and with only a few tweaks l was up to speed. I basically worked on relearning the track—it’s been four years since I’ve been here. Also I am learning about the Ninja ZX-10RR Suzuka endurance-spec machine… The bike is working in a good window and we are competitive in all temperatures. The bike is very agile and good in traffic. At the final part of day three we did a race simulation and we had a lot of positive input. To be honest, all three of us in the team have been fast so that’s a good sign. All members of the team have been welcoming and I am looking forward to coming back for the race and doing the best we can.”

In addition to the headliners, the paddock is full of legends, new boys, and journeymen: Tohru Ukawa, Dan Linfoot, Randy de Puniet, Yonny Hernández, Dominique Aegerter, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Shinichi Ito (he’s 51!), Akira Yanagawa, Nobuatsu Aoki, Isaac Viñales, Anthony West, David Checa, Niccolò Canepa, Mike Di Meglio, Broc Parkes, Karel Hanika, and Peter Hickman. It makes the cast of Ocean’s 13 look not that all-star.

For American fans, Velocity TV will air “a 44-minute race highlight program.” That’s it. Considering the 8 Hours is one of the most significant two-wheeled events of the year, it’s a real shame. Is it an accurate reflection of the lack of popularity of motorcycle racing in the US? Or, if there were better (and complete) coverage, would fans come out of the woodwork?

There are a lot of storylines to follow beside the main plot point. For starters, American Moto2 racer Joe Roberts will be racing on the Team Kagayama Suzuki alongside Yukio Kagayama. The team’s manager? None other than Kevin Schwantz. If that’s not a story American race fans would find interesting, I don’t know what would be.

We want the Suzuka 8 Hours. Voice your complaint. Call your senator, tell the AMA, picket your mega-dealership. Bring us the 8 Hours.