Kagayama second on the grid at Suzuka

BSB star Yukio Kagayama has qualified in second place for the start of tomorrow’s Suzuka eight-hour endurance race.

Kagayama, who has competed in the World Superbike, British Superbike, GP and now World Endurance championships in four consecutive weeks, took his Yoshimura Daxim Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a 2:07.655 lap, leaving him just 0.103 seconds off pole position.

The FCC TSR Honda team took pole after Shinichi Itoh, taking a weekend off from his regular job as test rider for the Pramac Honda GP team, took the FireBlade to a fastest lap of 2:07.552.

Third place on the grid goes to the Suzuki Kenz J Trust GSX-R1000 of World Supersport rider Katsuaki Fujiwara and Japanese road race star Keiichi Kitagawa on a 2:07.754 lap.

Fourth was the world championship pairing of GP rider Tohru Ukawa and WSB rider Hitoyasu Izutsu on the Seven stars Honda VTR1000SP-W, followed by the Masked Rider Honda FireBlade of Yu-Ki Takahashi and Tatsuya Yamahaguchi.

Honda GP riders Ryuichi Kiyonari and Nicky Hayden took their Seven Stars Honda VTR1000 SP-W to sixth with a time of 2:08.711.

The Suzuka race sees the inclusion of classes not usually seen in the championship including the Japanese Superbike and the Prototype classes that see the pace of racing upped significantly from the rest of the year.

The highest placed World Endurance regular was current championship leader Zongshen 1 who have won four out of the five endurance races this season. The team was 10th fastest in the second qualifying group but 12 teams were faster in the first group leaving Zongshen 1 to start 22nd on the grid with Zongshen 2 right behind them in 23rd.

Zongshen’s main competition in the class, the British Suzuki GB Phase One team, will start the race in 25th place.

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