I went to Suzuka circuit for the first time in my life to report the practice session for Suzuka 8hours. I didn't realize just how big it is. The bikes were really fast and sound was incredible.

The team I am reporting is team R1 & YAMALUBE and all team members are Yamaha employees.

Team Manager is Mr. Hideki Fujiwara. He was the development project leader for the new YZF-R1 that will run in this race. The three riders are Makoto Tokinaga, Norihiko Fujiwara and Jeffry de Vries.

I heard that Makoto Tokinaga was a test rider for the development of the R1. Apparently he raced in the All Japan Road Race Championship and Suzuka 8hours which he was class-winner in 2002. Norihiko Fujiwara was All Japan Champion for three years running! And Jeffry de Vries is a test rider for Yamaha Motor Europe and raced in World Superbike as well. This is an amazing line-up and I think we can expect a lot from them!

Apparently the team was formed by simple words from Makoto Tokinaga, who said he wanted to race this new R1.

He thought “if we can get these three riders together for this year's Suzuka 8hours, it would be really interesting".

However, there were many difficulties to put things together as a team only with employees, and Akira Tanaka, responsible of the team, asked around many different departments for their corporation.

Everybody has their day’s job as well and they have used their holidays to be here at the circuit.
It's really hard work, and taking on a challenge like this takes up their private time... I don't know how they do it. Amazing, really.

Team Manager Hideki Fujiwara has been involved in the development of bikes for a very long time, but this is the first time he has been at a race track. Same as me! When he was asked to be the Team Manager for the Suzuka 8hours, he said it was a bolt out of the blue. But then he thought that it would be a good opportunity to prove the superiority of the R1, which had "winning races" as one of its development goals.

"No Excuse". This was a key phrase during the development of the R1. Everybody in the team got behind this "No Excuse" slogan. "It's not overwhelming pressure" Makoto Tokinaga said to me, "More like being wrapped around by pleasant and well balanced tension." I thought I understood what he meant.

I still have a lot to learn about races, but I got this feeling of strength and kindness of this team.