Suzuka 8 Hours 2018

[Henrik_imp]

Last week I got the chance of a lifetime to participate in the Suzuka 8 Hours race together with one of the top teams. We got invited to join the Moriwaki team for the whole week, and it was an experience of a lifetime. I have always wanted to go to this race, and this was really more than I could have hoped for. The whole event was awesome, the team was wonderful, the fans incredible and we lucked out with the typhoon that passed over us during the night of Saturday to Sunday.

The two riders for the team were Ryuichi Kiyonari and Yuki Takahashi. These guys are real top riders, with Kiyo having won the BSB championship three teams, and Yuki having won Japanese championships as well as raced in Moto2. They are huge stars in Japan, and the fans love them.

Yuki:


Kiyo:


Honouring the fans in the pitlane:


The bike:


Yuki waiting to take over:








It is beginning to get dark:


The finish line:


The atmosphere was just magical at the end. The riders rode up the pitlane, high-fiving the fans and doing burnouts. It was like a huge celebration to motorcycle racing. Just wonderful, and a real bucket list thing done in my book!!

The team had gambled at the start as the only team to go out on slicks in spite of the rain that had just started to fall. It was a good gamble as it quickly began to dry up, and they were soon the fastest bike on track. Unfortunately during the 8 hours, there was quite a number of safety car interventions, each time really messing things up for the plan our team had, and so they could not benefit from their early advantage. In the end the finished a very respectable 8th out of over 60 teams, but they certainly had it in them to be on the podium if the luck would have gone a little bit the other way.

[Rocky_imp]

How cool is that!!!