Last year Yukio, partnered by Kosuke Akiyoshi, won the prestigious 8 hour race, giving Suzuki their first win since 1983 and he has started his
Suzuka campaign this year in great form by winning the 300 km race last Sunday. Once again his team mate was Kosuke Akiyoshi and the pair of them, who had dominated practice and qualifying, ran out the winners ahead of Ryuichi Kiyonari and Carlos Checa (Honda), with Daisaku Sakai and Atshushi Watanabe (Suzuki) third.
Yukio
I rode the Yoshimura GSX-R in Friday for the first time and we started by setting the bike up very near to Akiyoshi's Japanese SBK spec. This was a big present from Akiyoshi and gave me a big advantage and enabled me to bring our bike to finish-line very safety. I know Checa-san is very fast and I tried to stay fast and safe while he was chasing me. I made a few smart last couple of laps and was able to defend my position and take the win. Akiyoshi helped me a lot, and I would also like to say thank-you to all Yoshimura’s staff.