It’s almost time for the 43rd Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours, round three of the 2022 FIM Endurance World Championship. With one week to go before the big race, here are the big numbers all in one place.
43: This year’s Suzuka 8 Hours is the 43rd edition of the which, which took place for the first time on 30 July, 1978.
3: It’s the third round of the 2022 FIM Endurance World Championship following the 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans in April and the 24H SPA EWC Motos in June.
1982: After Mike Baldwin and Wes Cooley won the inaugural Suzuka 8 Hours in 1978, Japanese fans had to wait until 1982 for the first home victory when Shigeo Iijima and Shinji Hagiwara triumphed for Honda.
6: Although it was billed as an eight-hour race, the onset of a typhoon that year meant there were only six hours of racing.
2001: MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi partnered Colin Edwards to win the 2001 edition. Other notable winners include Wayne Rainey (1988), Eddie Lawson (1990) and Mick Doohan (1991).
30: In addition to the honour of winning the 43rd Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race, the first-place team will score 30 points.
20: The top 20 classified Formula EWC category finishers will score points as follows: 30-24-21-19-17-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.
10: Following Second Qualifying, fastest 10 teams will take part in the Top 10 Trial on Saturday 6 August to decide the first 10 places on the grid for the 43rd Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours.
11h30: The 43rd Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race is due to get underway at 11h30 local time on Sunday 7 August. That’s 04h30 CET.
5.821: At 5.821 kilometres, Suzuka is the second longest track on the 2022 EWC calendar. Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which hosted round two of the season in June, is the longest at 6.985 kilometres.
2m05.168s: The current Suzuka 8 Hours qualifying lap record stands at 2m05.168s, which was set by Jonathan Rea for Kawasaki Team Green in 2018. Rea also holds the race lap record, a 2m06.805s set in 2019.
2: As well as his lap records, Northern Irishman Rea is a two-time winner of the Suzuka 8 Hours.
3: Rea’s Kawasaki Racing Team Suzuka 8H team-mates are also prolific winners of the event, with Alex Lowes, who finished second three years ago, and Leon Haslam both winning three times.
2010: Takumi Takahashi, who will partner his fellow Japanese Tetsuta Nagashima, and Spaniard Iker Lecuona in the Team HRC line-up, took the first of his three Suzuka 8 Hours victories in 2010.
1106: When the 43rd Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race gets underway on 7 August, it will have been 1106 days since the event last took place, such has been the impact caused by the global health pandemic.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
