[EWC] 8 Hours of Suzuka 1987: The comeback and the first victory! (Part 3/6)

In this year 2019, the Yamaha R1 responsible for obtaining a 5th consecutive victory at the renowned Suzuka 8 hour endurance event will be decorated in Tech21 colors (see here). A nod to the past which deserves a little flashback before this race which will take place on July 28…

Yamaha Japan has retraced this adventure which lasted several years, and we offer you our translation.

Access the first part (1985) here

Access the second part (1986) here

Yamaha took its first victory as a factory team in its third year at the 8 Suzuka 1987 Hours, as Martin Wimmer et Kevin Magee, two members of the No. 21 Shiseido TECH21 Racing team, made a strong comeback during the final stages of the race. But Tadahiko Taira, the man whose name was synonymous with “TECH21” since the team’s beginnings, was once again not visible on the podium. An unfortunate injury had prevented him from riding and he instead worked as Team Manager.

By 1987, Taira had moved from the 250cc World Championship to the premier 500cc class and was no longer racing in Japan. He wasn't even at the Suzuka 200km Endurance Race held in early June as the sixth round of the Japan Road Racing Championship, essentially, the warm-up round for the Suzuka 8 Hours in July. But there were a few new topics to get racing fans talking.

Yamaha brought a factory YZF750 (0W89) with a single-swingarm for the 200km race with Kevin Magee in the saddle. The Australian started from pole position and drove hard in the 34-lap semi-endurance race, which included refueling stops, to widen the gap with the riders behind him. He took victory 38 seconds ahead of second place, which demonstrated Yamaha's intention to win the 8 Hours.

Yamaha looked in great shape for this iconic race, but a week before race day, news arrived that Taira had been injured during the French GP. He tried to take part in a few practice sessions on the Thursday before the race to test his fitness, but he felt his neck would not be able to withstand the wind and made the difficult decision to withdraw, choosing instead to stay in the stands as sports director. To replace him at extremely short notice, Martin Wimmer, Taira's former teammate in the 250cc GPs with the Marlboro Yamaha Agostini team, was called in and the German rider was signed to race with Magee.

The duo qualified well and started from 4th place on the grid. The leading duo composed of Wayne Gardner et Dominique Sarron, the previous year's winners, then crashed with the Honda, leaving the lead to Gary Goodfellow et Katsuro Takayoshi on Suzuki. The Shiseido TECH21 #21 racing team then had to catch up with them. The heat generated by Magee's powerful braking eventually seized the calipers, causing the pads to stick to the rotors and costing precious seconds during tire changes, but the team refused to give up. As the sun began to set, the team decided on a risky strategy: based on the gap to the leaders, instead of replacing Wimmer, Magee stayed on the bike for consecutive stints without changing the tires.

With 45 minutes to go, the gap to the lead was around 20 seconds. Magee was lapping about 0,5 to 1 second faster than the leaders, but the time left on the clock made it unclear whether or not that would be enough. 10 minutes before the flag, the gap was reduced to around ten seconds and, although comfortably in the lead for a very long time, the Suzuki pit did not demand consistency, but asked Takayoshi to increase his pace. Then, with five minutes to go, on lap 198, Takayoshi fell while trying to get around a laggard. Magee avoided the crash and took the checkered flag, giving Yamaha its first ever 8 Hours victory after a spectacular twist in the final five minutes.

Although the Yamaha team and fans in the stands went wild for the victory, the biggest cheers and cheers of the day were for Takayoshi for his unwavering mentality as he crossed the line in 2nd position after coming up on his motorcycle. But while the TECH21 team took its first victory at Suzuka with Taira as sporting director, not seeing him race and stand on the podium as a driver left many Japanese fans feeling like something was missing. And that made them even more eager to see Taira brandishing the Suzuka winner's trophy himself.