Lecuona Joins Team HRC for Productive Suzuka Final Joint Tests Day 2
#33 Team HRC’s Iker Lecuona arrived at Suzuka last night, in time to participate in Day 2 of the final joint tests preceding the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race (Suzuka 8 Hours).
Day 2 proceedings began under similar conditions to the previous day; harsh sunshine and intense heat. In Session 3, FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) regulars YART - Yamaha Official Team EWC (Yamaha) set the fastest time of 2 min 6.684 s. #33 Team HRC (Tetsuta Nagashima / Takumi Takahashi / Iker Lecuona) were second-fastest with 2 min 7.049 s. #73 SDG Honda Racing (Teppei Nagoe / Naomichi Uramoto / Ikuhiro Enokido) was fourth with 2 min 8.585 s. #17 Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing (Kosuke Sakumoto / Kazuma Watanabe / Taiga Hada) was sixth with 2 min 8.619 s. #25 Honda Sofukai Suzuka Racing (Yudai Kamei / Yuki Sugiyama / Jun Tadokoro) was one place behind with 2 min 8.646 s. #5 F.C.C. TSR Honda France (Josh Hook / Gino Rea / Mike Di Meglio) was ninth with 2 min 8.910 s. These were the Honda teams that sewt lap times in the 2 min 8 s range.
As Session 4 started in the afternoon, slight cloud cover masked the harsh sunshine, but high humidity kept heat levels up. Team HRC’s Lecuona spent most of his Session 4 time on track. Kawasaki Racing Team Suzuka 8H (Kawasaki) set the fastest time for the session of 2 min 7.157 s. #73 SDG Honda Racing was fourth-quickest with 2 min 7.670 s. #5 F.C.C. TSR Honda France was fifth, its 2 min 7.761 s lap time a vast improvement from the earlier session. #33 Team HRC finished the session with a best lap time of 2 min 8.796 s, tenth-fastest.
Team HRC’s team manager, Kazuhiko Yamano said, “Takahashi was mainly on the bike in the morning session, followed by Nagashima to verify, and in the afternoon we did more verification of Lecuona and the bike. We had Lecuona do ten lap petit-stints on each of the two bikes. All three of our riders concentrated on getting the bike settings right rather than fast lap times. Setting up the bike based on Takahashi’s vast experience, verified with Nagashima, and further verified by Lecuona was only possible because the riders highly respect each other. I feel their positive attitude has rubbed off on the team, who are bonded more than ever before. Everything is going smoothly, maybe too smoothly, so we’ll head into Qualifying with a disciplined approach.
Other Honda teams also used the two test days to ride, test, and verify their bikes. The Suzuka 4 Hours Endurance Race is scheduled for tomorrow, August 4, so the Suzuka 8 Hours joint tests have ended, waiting for Qualifying on Friday, the Top 10 Trial on Saturday, and race day on Sunday.