Moriwaki targeting a winning return

With a 2’07.346 lap by Ryuichi Kiyonari, Moriwaki Motul Racing earned itself a place among the top contenders for victory at the Suzuka 8 Hours. Moriwaki’s last appearance at the Suzuka 8 Hours dates to 2008, when the team was 6th at the finish with riders Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Carl Crutchlow and Jason O’Halloran. Over the past decade, the Japanese squad has focused almost exclusively on developing its Moto2 machines. With support from Pirelli, Moriwaki Motul Racing is making a return to the Suzuka 8 Hours with four-time race winner Ryuichi Kiyonari, Yuki Takahashi, and Dan Linfoot. During the three-day test, they were faster than the other Honda-mounted favourite Musashi RT Harc-Pro (Takumi Takahashi, Takaaki Nakagami and Jack Miller), Yamaha Factory Racing Team (Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark) and another top-tier Honda squad, F.C.C. TSR Honda (Stefan Bradl, Dominique Aegerter and Randy de Puniet). Kawasaki Team Green and Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing were just behind the leader, but their focus was race simulation, not chasing the fastest time.

Of the contenders for the FIM EWC 2016-2017 world championship title, YART Yamaha Official EWC Team came off best with a 2’08.861 lap in testing, ahead of GMT94 Yamaha (2’10.882) and Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (2'11.811).

The first official Suzuka 8 Hours test session starts on Thursday 27 July.

Top 25 of the three-day Suzuka 8 Hours test1- Moriwaki Motul Racing (Honda CBR1000 RR SP2/Pirelli) 2'07.346
2- Musashi RT Harc-Pro (Honda CBR1000 RR SP2/Bridgestone) 2'07.592
3- Yamaha Factory Racing Team (Yamaha YZF R1/Bridgestone) 2'07.603
4- F.C.C. TSR Honda (Honda CBR1000 RR SP2/Bridgestone) 2'07.700
5- Kawasaki Team Green (Kawasaki ZX-10RR/Bridgestone) 2'07.805
6- Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing (Suzuki GSX-R 1000/Bridgestone) 2'07.954
7- YART Yamaha Official EWC Team (Yamaha YZF R1/Bridgestone) 2'08.861
8- Honda Suzuka Racing Team (Honda CBR1000 RR SP2/Bridgestone) 2'08.886
9- Team Kagayama (Suzuki GSX-R 1000/Dunlop) 2'09.032
10- Honda Dream Racing (Honda CBR1000RR SP2/Bridgestone) 2'09.126
11- S-Pulse Dream Racing IAI (Suzuki GSX-R 1000/Bridgestone) 2'09.157
12- Team SuP Dream Honda (Honda CBR1000RR SP2/Bridgestone) 2'09.242
13- Honda Dream RT Sakurai Honda (Honda CBR1000RR SP2/Bridgestone) 2'09.521
14- MotoMap Supply FutureAccess (Suzuki GSX-R 1000/Bridgestone) 2'09.628
15- SatuHATI Honda Team Asia (Honda CBR1000RR SP2/Bridgestone) 2'09.721
16- Team JP DFR & RS-Itoh (Kawasaki ZX-10RR/Dunlop) 2'10.142
17- BMW Motorrad39 (BMW S1000RR/Bridgestone) 2'10.567
18- EVA RT Webike Trick Star (Kawasaki ZX-10R/Dunlop) 2'10.705
19- GMT94 Yamaha (Yamaha YZF R1/Dunlop) 2'10.882
20- au & Teluru-Kohara RT (Honda CBR1000RR SP2/Dunlop) 2'10.967
21- Mistresa with ATJ Racing (Honda CBR1000RR SP2/Bridgestone) 2'11.095
22- Titanium Power Hooters Racing (Yamaha YZF R1/Bridgestone) 2'11.291
23- ITO Racing GMD & Redgriffin (Yamaha YZF R1/Bridgestone) 2'11.318
24- Akeno Speed Yamaha (Yamaha YZF R1/Bridgestone) 2'11.750
25- Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Suzuki GSX-R 1000/Dunlop) 2'11.811

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