The 44th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race has taken on added significance for Kazuki Watanabe.
Not only is the iconic event Watanabe’s home round of the FIM Endurance World Championship, it also marks his first opportunity to race in front of the Japanese fans in 2023.
The Team Kawasaki Webike Trickstar rider explained: I wasn’t racing in Japan this year, not even in the sprint races, so this is the first race of the year in Japan for me so it’s a very special feeling compared to the other years. So many fans are coming and this year I come back to Kawasaki as the manufacturer team. Everybody is expecting a good result and I want to do the excitement for the fans.
Watanabe finished third in last year’s Suzuka 8 Hours as part of the two-rider Yoshimura SERT Motul team alongside Gregg Black.
It feels like it was so long ago but of course we raced with only two riders and this made it more harder, the 32-year-old recalled. This year we have three riders and that makes it more easier. But the package [I have] is completely different compared to last year and we still need to adapt to Suzuka with the machinery.
The temperature for this year’s will be the hottest temperature for so many years [about 36 degrees centigrade] so you can imagine, as a rider, doing the same things to go as fast as you can go. I know the Suzuka 8 Hours and I can prepare for the temperatures but it’s not so easy for my team because many of them work in cold temperatures. But I am looking forward to doing the race in Japan in front of so many fans.
Watanabe arrives in Suzuka on the back of Team Kawasaki Webike Trickstar finishing a strong fifth overall in the 24H SPA EWC Motos in mid-June. However, expects his France-based team will face a tall order to repeat that result.
It’s difficult to say what we can do because it’s still building up for the race weekend, Watanabe said. Step by step we make a better bike and also the structure with the team. I think we will be in the best condition just before the race so it’s difficult to say now what the result will be, but at least we can fight for the top 10. If you say this outside of the country that means the expectation is low. But in the Suzuka 8 Hours there are so many strong, we can say strong, factory teams. That means it’s difficult to be in the top 10 but I hope we can finish in the top 10.
Randy de Puniet and Grégory Leblanc are also part of Team Kawasaki Websike Trickstar’s Suzuka attack this season alongside Watanabe.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
