Qualifying was based on the average times of the two best riders, specifically Ruka Wada and Italian Samuele Cavalieri, a former Aprilia rider in the Italian Superbike Championship but at his first experience in an endurance race. Starting in fourth place in their category (26th overall), the three riders tackled the eight-hour race by focusing on consistency, avoiding mistakes, especially when a light rain animated the strategies.

The box then decided to refuel at every rider change but change tyres every two stints, a choice that turned out to be correct. On its debut the team also occupied second place in its category for a long time, a result that vanished only 30mins from the chequered flag.

The podium in such a demanding competition as the 8 Hours of Suzuka is nevertheless a remarkable result, which adds to the Aprilia RSV4’s extraordinary palmarés. After 7 World Titles in Superbike and countless trophies in the various categories, the Italian super sports bike continues to make history in road bike racing.

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There has been late drama and a safety car in the final hour of the race after the leading season-contender #7 YART – Yamaha Official Team YZF-M1 got caught up with the #74 Akeno Speed – Yamaha Superstock bike at T13 such that rider Marvin Fritz had to dig the Yamaha out of the air barriers to get it back to the pits.

The late issue for the #7 gifted the championship leading #1 Yoshimura SERT Motul with the two-rider line-up of Gregg Black and Kazuki Watanabe taking maximum series points and third on the overall podium. Ahead of the Yoshimura SERT bike on the all-Bridgestone shod podium was the #10 Kawasaki Racing Team Suzuka 8H ZX-10R of Jonathan Rea, Alex Lowes and Leon Haslam, with a T12 slow lowside for Rea in the fourth hour seeming the only real cause for concern over the 8 hours.

After another late visit to the pits for a Stop and Go penalty for the #7 with Karel Hanika on board, the YART bike still came second of the full season runners – and seventh overall – with Niccolò Canepa the third of the rider line-up.

Next across the line of the full season contenders, the #5 FCC TSR CBR1000RR-R Fireblade with Josh Hook and Mike Di Meglio in action had fought back up the order after its earlier brake master cylinder change to finish in tenth overall. The #88 Honda Asia-Dream Racing with SHOWA was the next of the permanent entries, with Zaqhwan Zaidi, Garry Slim and Helmi Azuman bringing their CBR1000RR-R home eleventh overall.

In fifteenth overall, the full-time #11 Webike SRC Kawasaki France entry was further down the order than they would have liked, with an early visit to the pits after a drop at Degner 2 from Randy de Puniet and a later lack of fuel the primary culprits delaying their charge.

Finally, of the permanent entries, for the #37 BMW MOTORRAD WORLD ENDURANCE TEAM it was heartbreak at halftime as the M1000RR ridden by Markus Reiterberger, Illya Mykhalchyk and Jérémy Guarnoni was pushed back to the pits by Mykhalchyk for terminal diagnosis by the squad with the bike unable to retain its engine coolant.

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