After missing the 45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race through injury, Gregg Black is back for the 46th edition with FIM Endurance World Championship title-winning Yoshimura SERT Motul.
But while the Suzuki-powered 36-year-old is wary of the ultra-tough competition and the intense heat and humidity that he will face, a podium finish is the clear target alongside team-mates Cocoro Atsumi and Dan Linfoot.
UK-born Frenchman Black took time out of his busy schedule to answer five key questions.
The recent tests gave you the opportunity to return to Suzuka for the first time since your accident in testing in June 2024. What was the experience like?
“I wasn’t scared but I just felt a bit uncomfortable to start off because the accident wasn’t my fault. It took half a day to just get back into the rhythm. I was quite careful to start with, but I picked the pace back up and had a good feeling with the bike and the set-up we’ve got this year and tried to move on from there. It felt quite good actually.”
The Suzuka track layout presents a formidable challenge
As a track, how hard is Suzuka to get to grips with?
“Suzuka is definitely a hard track, especially with the hot temperatures, the humidity and also the track which is quite demanding physically. It doesn’t stop turning left, right all the time and the straights aren’t actually real straights. It’s a long track (5.821 kilometres) with a lot of turns so it’s hard, not to learn because you can learn it quite fast, but to be really fast on it is technically really difficult so you just need a million laps around there to be fast. And you can see every year you can progress on the track every single time you go out on it. Not like in an Isle of Man TT sort of way but you need to ride it and ride it and ride it as much as you can. The more you ride it the faster you get. It’s not a traditional track where you can go and be fast straight out, you need to have a lot of knowledge and that’s what makes it difficult. But it’s a nice track and I really like going there. It’s nice to see all the Japanese people, the fans, the partners of the team. I do appreciate it.”
Black leads the EWC pack at Suzuka in 2023
In terms of the heat and humidity, can you describe the level of intensity?
“It was supposed to rain during the test but we had a full week of really, really hot conditions, the same they had for the race last year, between 58 and 64 degrees of track temperature so it was hard for us, but it was good for our bike set-up and to get the feeling that we’ll probably have during the race. It’s the most physically demanding track and conditions of the championship so we’re lucky to only race there for eight hours rather than 24. You need to pace yourself and get used to the track. You always try to push hard but your body is not used to the temperatures and you’ve got a bit of jetlag at the start. It takes you a few laps to adapt to the track and the conditions but then you get into it. We’re lucky to have some hot conditions in France right now to be able to train in hot conditions. A stint is pretty hard and it’s difficult to keep concentrating. It’s not an hour but it’s not far off, 57 minutes or something like that and it’s really hard to stay concentrated and not lose your focus during a full stint. You’re worn out, you’re breathing hard, you feel like you’re in a sauna. It just feels like you’re overheating and when you’re overheating your body temperature goes up so you need to cool your body down, get something to eat, get some drinks and get fit again.”
Watanabe (left) and Black took a podium as a pair in 2022
It’s a phenomenal entry this year with stars from MotoGP and World Superbike taking on the EWC regulars and some of the best from Japan. What do you think of the line-up?
“The level in Suzuka is really high, there are lot of factory teams there, all the strong permanent teams are there and also some local private teams that are not full factory but are at a really high level. The Japanese teams absolutely give 200 per cent to get a result and it really closes up the competition. The #30 Honda is always really strong, the #21 Yamaha is back and we’re really not far off 10 bikes that can be on the podium.”
Yoshimura SERT Motul heads to Suzuka after finishing fourth at Spa
Given the strong competition what’s the target in terms of a result?
“Three years ago we managed to get a podium with [just me and Kazuki Watanabe], two years ago we missed the podium but, last year, we finished third and a podium is the aim again. It’s going to be a tough race, but the target is to get on the podium. You’ve always got to imagine that anything can happen during the race and you don’t know where it’s going to go so the dream, of course, is to win.”
The 46th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race, round three of the 2025 EWC season, takes place from 1-3 August. Click HERE for more information.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]