@Yamaha France #GMT94 Take Hard Fought Podium in #Suzuka


The Yamaha France GMT94 Michelin Yamalube Team took a hard fought third place on the podium this weekend in the 2012 Suzuka 8Hour race, the 35th anniversary of what is one of the toughest road racing endurance races in the world.

After initially dropping down the field following an unexpected pit stop, the team made maximum use of the potential of the 2012 YZF-R1 to work steadily back up through the field, passing numerous back markers to reach the front runners.

The achievement was doubly impressive for the gathered Japanese fans as the team had just two riders competing instead of the normal three as regular member Matthieu Lagrive was injured. It fell to David Checa and Kenny Foray to lead the charge, Checa impressing with a final double stint push at the end to take the podium.

Monster Energy Yamaha YART made an impressive start to the race weekend with Japanese rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga taking his YZF-R1 to pole position, smashing the Endurance lap record in the process with an incredible 2’06.845 second run in the scorching heat. Joined by British Superbike Swan Yamaha riders Tommy Hill and Noriyuki Haga, the team made a strong start to the race. Nakasuga led initially and was working to increase the lead with an impressive pace until an unfortunate crash. After some time spent repairing the bike Hill and Haga were able to replicate Nakasuga’s potential race winning lap times but were unfortunately 27 laps behind the field by that point and so decided to retire.



David Checa

Yamaha France GMT 94 Yamalube Michelin

"I’m so happy to achieve this result for Yamaha and for the team. A big thank you to them and also Michelin, we got third thanks to their efforts. They kept me so well informed, I knew exactly when I needed to push or not. So I could push for third when the time was right. Congratulations to Johnny and his team for their victory.”



Kenny Foray

Yamaha France GMT 94 Yamalube Michelin

“Today is one of the best days of my life, our team mate Mattieu Lagrive was injured and I stepped up to do more stints than normally planned. I'm so happy. Thank you to the whole GMT team, Yamaha and all our sponsors for their great support and welcome in Japan. Merci beaucoup! It was a crazy day, thanks to David for pushing so hard at the end, I don’t know what to say more!"



Katsuyuki Nakasuga

YART Monster Energy Yamaha

“I wanted to make a big gap before passing on the bike to Tommy. After the crash I was not really injured but I got a big impact on my body and the bike got damaged with a flat tyre. This is endurance racing so I pushed back the bike to the pit. Due to my crash I created a big challenge for Tommy, Nori and the team and I want to say sorry to them. Now I want to look forward to the next opportunity.”



Tommy Hill

YART Monster Energy Yamaha

“First of all I want to thank everyone involved in this project. It’s difficult to win here but seeing our average times I think we could have done so, or at least a podium. The final result is a disappointment for the team and Yamaha but this is racing. Katsu is really fast and I could see his passion to win, I learned from that. In BSB I ride maybe 110% at times but here you must try to give 90% constantly. Of course I want to come again and do a full race. I’m sure I can do even better with the experience I have now.”



Noriyuki Haga

YART Monster Energy Yamaha

“I’m very sorry we couldn’t get a top result. I could feel Katsu’s strong fighting spirit after the crash when he pushed the bike back. After the repair Tommy and I did one stint but we had to decide to retire because we were too far behind and because a complete repair of the bike was not possible. I want to get a full race result at a next opportunity.”

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