2nd Place Finish, First Ever Podium for YART at Suzuka

In the leadup to the 45th "Coca-Cola" Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race, the Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team (YART) took its first pole position since 2012 and 2013. Those previous two poles were set by Katsuyuki Nakasuga, who had joined the team specially for the Suzuka 8 Hours. For this reason, this was YART's first Suzuka pole position achieved with only its regular EWC riders, and the first time an EWC rider has taken pole position at the Suzuka 8 Hours since 2008, when all the bikes were unified under EWC Formula specifications.

In the Top 10 Trial, Marvin Fritz recorded a pole position time of 2'05.130, but it was fastest qualifier Karel Hanika who looked on-track to set an even faster one. A major crash in sector two kept him from doing so, however.

Niccolò Canepa was chosen to ride the opening stint for the race. He is the team's most experienced rider, and he excels at getting the race off to a strong start thanks to his speed and ability to take precise stock of the situation. He proved he was up to the task once again as he made the Le Mans style start and entered the first corner in 2nd behind BMW rider Markus Reiterberger. At the final chicane, he passed Reiterberger to take over the lead and come across the start/finish line in 1st on the opening lap.

Canepa led the race until lap 5, but was passed by Ducati rider Ryo Mizuno on lap 6. However, he took over the lead again at the final chicane on lap 8, and in the early stages of the race a major battle unfolded for the lead among several riders, including Honda rider Takumi Takahashi.

Gradually, Team HRC with Japan Post (Honda) upped their pace and started to open a gap from the front. By the time the teams came in for their first pit stops, they had built up a solid lead. Canepa handed the YZF-R1 over to Marvin Fritz, then it went to Karel Hanika as they rode their stints, with YART solidifying their 2nd position.

About halfway through the race, Team HRC with Japan Post and YART were on the same lap and competing for the lead, with the third-placed team a lap down. In the latter stages, YART was able to close in on the Honda with the gap coming down to around 48 seconds, when Team HRC with Japan Post received a 40-second penalty for violating a rule during its final pit stop. The penalty announcement came with about 5 minutes left until the checkered flag, and when subtracting the 40-second penalty, YART's gap to the leader was around 11 seconds.

In the final minutes and after 218 laps, YART was in second place 10.5 seconds back from the leader. Then with 219 laps done the gap had fallen to 8.9 seconds. In the end, YART completed 220 laps, the same as the leader, which set a record for the most laps ever recorded in a Suzuka 8 Hours. At the checkered flag, the gap between YART and the leader was 7.86 seconds (after subtracting the 40-second penalty), which was the team's final result for 2nd place.

It was YART's first ever podium in the Suzuka 8 Hours, which it has been competing in since 2004. The result vaults the team to the top of the 2024 EWC championship standings as they come into the final round of the season, the Bol d'Or, where they will challenge for a second consecutive title and their third overall.

#1 Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team: 2nd (220 laps)

Niccolò Canepa

"The only mistake we made in the race was not choosing the right front tire for the first stint. I made a good start, but immediately did not have a good feeling on the bike. So, I changed my strategy to stay in front of our rivals and not let them get past. Every time they passed me, I tried to pass them back. I held them off as long as I could, but at some point, I couldn't anymore because the temperatures today were so extreme. It was the toughest 8 Hours race of my life.
In my second and third stints, I had a much better pace than before. We were controlling the gap from behind, but we had the feeling that HRC were controlling the gap on us, so the race was kind of frozen. It feels amazing to be on the podium. Thanks to my teammates and to the team, because they did an incredible job with every pit stop so we didn't even have to think about the teams behind us.
We have been the strongest EWC team all year. Even if we finished 3rd in Le Mans, we were by far the strongest in that race. We dominated in Spa, and we dominated here as well if you consider only the regular EWC teams. I'm not afraid of the Bol d'Or, even with the 2 km straight, but this year I think we are the strongest team in the EWC, the team atmosphere is great, and we want to win this championship again."

Marvin Fritz

"This was the hottest, toughest 8 Hours race I've ever done. The heat and humidity made it hard to stay concentrated, especially the last seven, eight laps, I was almost dizzy. But we never gave up, and I'm super proud of the whole team, especially because our pit stops were the fastest and we didn't make a single mistake. I'm proud of myself for having super consistent laps. In one of my stints, we kept exactly a 40-second gap to the leaders for the entire stint, so I'm happy with the consistency. For a team from Austria to come here and compete with the big teams, and in the end only lose by 7.8 seconds, it's amazing. When we saw the penalty, we told Karel to push but it was already too late. We came here with a one-point gap to the leaders, now we leave six points ahead of them, so I'm happy. I'm confident for the Bol d'Or, and the goal is to make it back-to-back titles there."

Karel Hanika

"It was the hardest race of my career with these conditions. It was so tough mentally, because you feel like you just want to go back to the box because your whole body hurts. But the team was working so hard and I didn't want to let them down, so I pushed as hard as I could. My first stint was not so good, so we changed the strategy for the second stint. On the third stint the goal was just to bring the bike across the finish line. There was a penalty, but I got the information with not much time left, and I pushed for the win, but it was too late.
We have been coming here to try for the podium since 2022, and this year we could finally reach it. I'm super proud of my teammates as they did an awesome job throughout the week. I hope we can repeat this again in one year's time. It feels awesome to stand here because the fans are the best in the world. We achieved what we wanted, to get some points over our main competitors. It's only a few points though, so it's going to be a big battle in the last race, but we have shown that we have the #1 on our bike for a reason, and I we'll give 100% to bring the second title in a row to Yamaha."

Team Manager Mandy Kainz

"We did exactly what we wanted to do, and that is to run a perfect race, and to not worry about the other teams. The start was the usual Canepa style, he had a perfect start and led the race. But we made the wrong choice with the tires, and because of that he dropped back. We hadn't experienced these temperatures in the pre-event tests at all. That's why the race was slower. Coming in we easily had a race pace in the 2'07s, but in this race the pace ended up being '08, 09', '10. The temperatures were extreme, so just to finish without any problem was amazing. Big thanks to all the staff for the fastest pit stops of the whole paddock and of the day.
When the leaders got a 40-second penalty, there wasn't much time left and we had to decide whether to push and take big risks for the win, or settle for 2nd place. Honestly, we decided to push for the win, but it was too late by then. We tried to tell Karel, but it was difficult to communicate with him while he was on the bike.
In the past few years, we've had to the speed to be on the podium, but we made mistakes and didn't reach it. This time we finally got what we deserved. It was great to achieve this podium with our regular lineup of riders, so a big thanks to the riders and staff, and to Yamaha and Bridgestone.
We are now six points behind going into the final round. For us, we just have to be "All in." To go for it all the way. To be honest, the Bol d'Or is not our favorite, but it wasn't so bad last year, so we will go there in full YART attack mode!"

Final Results

Pos.	No.	Team	Machine	Best Lap
1	#30	Team HRC with Japan Post	Honda	08:01:29.693（220 Laps）
2	#1	Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team	Yamaha	7.860
3	#12	YOSHIMURA SERT MOTUL	Suzuki	1Lap
4	#2	DUCATI Team KAGAYAMA	Ducati	1Lap
5	#37	BMW MOTORRAD WORLD ENDURANCE TEAM	BMW	2Laps
6	#71	Honda Dream RT SAKURAI Honda	Honda	2Laps
7	#104	TOHO Racing	Honda	2Laps
8	#0	Team SUZUKI CN CHALLENGE	Suzuki	EXP
9	#73	SDG Team HARC-PRO. Honda	Honda	4Laps
10	#99	KM 99	YAMAHA	5Laps
11	#17	Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing	Honda	5Laps
12	#50	Team KODAMA	Yamaha	5Laps
13	#6	Team TARO PLUSONE with SDG	BMW	6Laps
14	#40	TeamATJ with docomo business	Honda	7Laps
15	#4	TATI TEAM BERINGER RACING	Honda	7Laps
19	#13	Taira Promote Racing	Yamaha	9Laps
27	#15	IRF with AZURLANE	Yamaha	14Laps
31	#57	NICHIRIN RACING NOI:Z	Yamaha	19Laps
33	#806	NCXX RACING with RIDERS CLUB	Yamaha	20Lap
37	#411	MATSUNAGA KDC & YSP NAGOYA KITA with RPT NAGANO	Yamaha	38Laps