After 26 years, Kawasaki wins the Suzuka 8 Hours!

The 42nd edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours concluded with a win for Kawasaki. The race is not only an Endurance world championship round, but particularly an opportunity for the four Japanese giants, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and of course Kawasaki, to battle it out, which makes it the most important race of the season.
Kawasaki decided to field a “dream team” comprising four-time Superbike world champion Jonathan Rea, his KRT team-mate Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu, the Akashi manufacturer’s young hope, who races in the Superbike world championship with Turkish Puccetti Racing. As well as the official KHI staff, some technicians from the WorldSBK KRT outfit were also in attendance.
A real combined effort to bring the Akashi manufacturer a win that it had been missing for 26 years.
And the result was achieved, the factory Kawasaki team winning the race!
A hard-fought victory and one that came after the chequered flag, but that only meant there was more of a reason to celebrate!
The Kawasaki team was leading the race but with just a short time to go, Rea crashed on oil left on the track by another competitor’s bike. The four-time world champion was unable to bring his bike back to the garage, which meant that the win was not awarded to the Akashi manufacturer at first, but only after the squad had made and won its appeal.
Manuel Puccetti was very pleased, having supported Toprak Razgatlioglu and the Kawasaki team throughout the entire 8-hour event.
The Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Team Principal comments: “It was a great experience that will stay with me for long to come. I spent an entire week with the riders and factory Kawasaki team staff and experienced all the tension, the preparation, the practice, the race and the final result from the inside”.
Puccetti explains the particular atmosphere that Suzuka offers.
“The Suzuka 8 Hours is a race in itself, nothing like races in other world championships. Nothing is left to chance and the team with the best strategy wins, having considered many factors in addition to just tyres, consumption and riders’ performance of course. We spent a whole week together in the Kawasaki garage and the win was the right prize for such an incredible effort.”
But there was also time for Puccetti team talk at Suzuka.
“It was also an opportunity to meet with Kawasaki management – states Manuel – and discuss our shared future. I really appreciated the compliments that management figures paid our team and in coming days we will talk again to decide on our plans for next year”.

Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
Via Bonvicini 25
Reggio Emilia, RE 42122
Italy