Detail

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announces the top team it will be supporting for the coming "Coca Cola ZERO・Suzuka 8 hours World Endurance Championship Race (Suzuka 8-hour), round 3 of the 2007 QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship Series to be held on July 29 (Sun.) at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Pref. The team痴 name is YAMAHA RACING and it will enter two machines (#21/#81).
Machine #21 will sport the colors of the 添SP Racing Team sponsored by PRESTO Corporation・and will be ridden by Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Nobuyuki Osaki. Machine #81 will sport the colors of the 添痴 Gear Racing・team and will be ridden by Norifumi (Norick) Abe and Jamie Stauffer (Australia). The machine colors and graphics will be familiar to the fans as the same ones on the machines ridden by Nakasuga and Abe respectively in the 2007 All Japan Championships. The class they will enter is the JSB1000 class and the machine is the 2007 YZF-R1.
Nakasuga is a rapidly rising rider who recently scored his first JSB win in round 4 of the All Japan Road Race Championships. And in June he also ran all 52 laps of the 8-hour warm-up, the Suzuka 300km Endurance Race, to scored a podium finish in 3rd.
He first participated as an alternate rider in the 2005 Suzuka 8-hour and actually competed in the race for the first time in 2006, only to be forced to retire from the race due to machine trouble. This year he will be looking to prove himself and win in his second attempt at the Suzuka 8-hour. His partner, Osaki, is presently competing in the JSB class of the All Japan Championships and has competed in the Suzuka 8-hour for four consecutive years.
Abe is the veteran GP rider with a career record of three GP500 wins and has also competed in WSB. This season he has returned to the All Japan Championships for the first time in 13 years, riding in the JSB1000 class for the Y痴 Gear Racing team. This will be Abe痴 first entry in the Suzuka 8-hour. In the previously mentioned Suzuka 300km Endurance Race in June he ran with the leaders through mid-race, encouraging hopes that he will be in position to win the 8-hour in his first attempt.
Abe痴 teammate Stauffer is the 2006 champion of the Superbike and Supersport classes of the Australian Championships competing on a YZF-R1 and YZF-R6. He is now the point leader in the same Australian Superbike class in the 2007 season and hopes to bring that momentum into the 8-hour.

At the 8-hour warm-up, the Suzuka 300km Endurance Race, on June 10,
Nakasuga (left) and Abe (right) (machine is the YZF-R1)

Rider Profiles

#21 YAMAHA RACING

#81 YAMAHA RACING