Gregg Black has been looking back as he looks ahead to next week’s Suzuka FIM Endurance World Championship counter.
Black finished on the podium in Japan’s EWC round last season – even though he arrived in the country as Yoshimura SERT Motul’s non-riding team captain.
The France-based Japanese squad had called up then fourth rider Kazuki Watanabe to partner Sylvain Guintoli and Xavier Siméon in the Suzuki-powered attack, relegating Black to a substitute role.
But with Siméon ruled out in the build-up to the race and Guintoli injured in a fall during testing, Black was named alongside Watanabe for the 43rd Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race.
Despite the handicap of being a two-rider pairing only, UK-born Black and Japanese Watanabe excelled by finishing in third position.
It was a strong ride, especially with just two of us riding the bike, said 34-year-old Black. It’s a hard race to be in and to be competitive in that race is always difficult and [last] year was the first year that I could be really competitive.
I managed to lead for a little while and battle at the front and there were just two of us riding the bike. We finished third and that was a pretty good result and one of the best rides.
We were quite far back on the grid [last year because] in qualifying we did a mistake with the choice of tyres. But we got a good start and I managed to get up quite a few places to actually lead the race for a few turns, which was good.
Of his aim for the 44th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race, which is due to start at 11h30 local time on Sunday 6 August, Black is targeting a return to the top three.
The objective will be to get a podium [again] and be as strong in the race, but hopefully it will be better this year with three of us riding and it won’t be as hard as last year,” said Black, who will be partnered by Guintoli and Étienne Masson.
It’s always nice to see the Japanese fans, the Japanese people in the grandstands with all the colours, especially the red for Yoshimura.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
