Yukio and Kousuke had qualified their Yoshimura Suzuki in second place for the 8 hour race, but made a superb start and got the holeshot to lead the pack down to turn one. It wasn’t long before Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) took the lead and they dominated the race, apart from a brief spell when a sudden rainfall hit part of the track. It was in these tricky conditions that Yukio swept past Checa and then pulled out a ten second advantage over the Spaniard. Yukio was faster then Checa in both the wet and the dry, but disaster struck on the 91st lap when Yukio hit a pool of water and crashed. He immediately picked the bike up and carried on, but lost first place to Checa and then when Kousuke crashed later on, all chance of victory was gone. Yukio and Kousuke were fifth going into the last session, but Yukio continued to push himself and the bike hard all the way to the finish and managed to grab fourth place in the end.

Yukio - 4th

"I really thought we had a realistic chance to beat Honda, but then heavy rain began to fall. I was pushing hard, but within the safety margins, and then I hit a large pool of water and crashed. I feel sorry for my team mate Kousuke and all the Yoshimura and SMC staff that we didn't win. We’ll just have to try again next year.

Suzuka 8 Hour Results
1. DREAM Honda - KIYONARI/ C.CHECA - 214 laps
2. YOSHIMURA SUZUKI with DENSO - SAKAI/ WATANABE - 214 laps
3. HARC. pro Honda - KONISHI/ TAKAHASHI - 210 laps
4. YOSHIMURA SUZUKI with JOMO - YUKIO KAGAYAMA/ KOUSUKE AKIYOSHI - 209 laps
5. YAMAHA Racing - SATO/ NAKASUGA/ TAKEDA - 209 laps
6. MORIWAKI MOTUL Racing HONDA - YAMAGUCHI/ CRUTCHLOW/ O’HALLORAN - 208 laps
7. PLOT FARO PANTHERA SUZUKI - KONNO/ TERAMOTO - 207 laps
8. MotoMap SUPPLY SUZUKI - HATANO/ OGATA/ NAMEKATA - 205 laps
9.SAKURAI HONDA 10 - KAMEYA/ HASLAM - 205 laps
10. SAKURAI HONDA 71 - TSUDA/ BROOKES - 204 laps
14. SUZUKI ENDURANCE RACING TEAM - DA COSTA /LAGRIVE - 202 laps"