Heart of Blue: What Yamaha Brings to the Suzuka 8 Hours

Look at the numbers today and you'll see the Grand Prix of Japan in MotoGP drawing over 90,000 fans, while the Suzuka 8 Hours brings in around 61,000. It's a shift from the peak in 1990 when we saw a staggering 160,000 people packed in on race day alone. But Suzuka is different; it's close to Yamaha's headquarters in Iwata. It pre-dates modern MotoGP (not counting the original 500cc World Grand Prix championship), and over the decades, it's forged its own entirely unique culture. For Yamaha, this isn't just another race on the calendar. So many of our most iconic milestones were born right here at this event. It's deeply woven into our history, and without a doubt, the 8 Hours stands right alongside MotoGP at the absolute pinnacle of our motorsports world.

You really have to look at MotoGP and the Suzuka 8 Hours as two completely different disciplines. They each have their own unique buzz and their own reason for being. For all of us at Yamaha, we want to bring that specific Suzuka energy to fans everywhere.

Beyond the track, we also want the 8 Hours to be a major morale booster inside the company, and a way to help push motorcycle racing forward in a healthy direction. That's exactly why we brought the factory team back in 2025--which was our 70th anniversary--after six years away. At the end of the day, the 8 Hours is this incredible opportunity to bring everyone at Yamaha together, while showing Japan's most passionate, core fans what our brand, our bikes, and motorsports are all about.

As part of building morale for employees, last year we organized a tour involving 300 new hires and 300 existing employees to cheer for the factory team, for Endurance World Championship (EWC) regulars the Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team (YART), and for the private teams competing on the YZF-R1.

In 2025, Honda got a lot of attention as they took their fourth 8 Hours win in a row, but at the same time, we made waves by bringing back our factory team to take them on. I think this rivalry really added to the excitement, and we were thrilled to receive so much support.

This being the case, I think that with last year's event generating so much excitement at the venue, in the industry and in the market, that gave us a sense of unity within the company and had a positive impact in many areas, like technological development and human resource development. What struck me most at the time was that the 8 Hours isn't just an event for the motorsports division, but an event that involves Yamaha Motor as a whole. After we finished as runners-up, it made me think that to live up the expectations of our fans, we have to win it. That's why we we're continuing with the factory team in 2026, why we're doing another in-house employee tour, and why we're back to compete as Yamaha Motor in the 8 Hours once again.

That being said, we aren't planning to approach it the same way we did last year. There's only so much we can do, but right after the race last year we started comparing and analyzing our performance against our rivals. We looked at our riders, pit work, bikes, and race strategy, working to identify where we struggled and to what extent. We wanted to identify our strengths and weaknesses, and since then we've been taking steps to address those.

In terms of our approach, we're tackling some new challenges this time around. Because we're actively racing in JSB1000 here in Japan, as well as on the world stage in WorldSBK and EWC, we have this incredible pool of data and expertise. Our goal is to bring all those insights together to create a powerful synergy across our programs.

We don't want to stick to the same approach we've taken, instead we want to incorporate new and different perspectives. One example is YART, who are a top team with a long history of EWC competition and who have taken numerous victories. We can collaborate with them, sharing ideas to elevate our race strategies on both sides. Specifically, we're ramping up our synergy with Europe, led by Niccolò Canepa. He has that rider perspective from his days racing with YART, and now that he's heading up road racing operations for our European group, he's the perfect bridge. At the end of the day, if we want to win, we have to be willing to evolve.

In racing there are no guarantees, because you're always competing against rivals, but we'll continue to build stronger toward achieving two goals: winning and surpassing our previous record of 220 laps.

The fact that we haven't changed our riders from last year's lineup is a clear sign of our commitment. Since the event takes places earlier this year (in early July), we weren't able to hold a full team test with all three riders, so we're almost going in blind with some things. That's exactly why we selected the best riders who we feel can win, riders who can build on their experience from last year. Nakasuga, in particular, struggled with an injury in last year's 8 Hours, but as he's showing us in this year's All-Japan Championship, he's still fast. Above all though, his maturity and composure are so important to this team.

The Suzuka 8 Hours is a massive event for Yamaha, but more than that, I truly believe it's a vital symbol for the fans, for our company, and for motorsports as a whole. There is just so much history and value wrapped up in it. That's exactly why everyone at Yamaha is approaching this challenge with absolute seriousness. Whether you're cheering for us trackside at Suzuka Circuit or watching from home on TV this July, we hope you'll join us and help make it an unforgettable race.