Podium for SERT at Suzuka 8-Hour

The Yoshimura SERT Motul team finished third at this year's Suzuka 8-Hour, the podium lifting the reigning EWC world champions to fourth in this year's standings.

 

The team lined up seventh on the grid for the prestigious event, but Gregg Black made one of his trademark starts and rounded the first turn in second place. 

The team battled inside the top-six for the opening half of the race, despite a crash for Dan Linfoot during his first stint. The team worked quickly to repair the bike and he, along with teammates Black and Cocoro Atsumi, managed to climb back up the order and into the top-four.

 

In the latter stages of the race it was a fight for third place, and, with the deployment of the safety car in Linfoot's final stint, it became a close on-track battle. Linfoot and SERT came out on top, and took the chequered flag in third place, one lap off the winners.

 

After a tricky start to the team's title defence at Le Mans, the result saw them regain points on their championship rivals and climb to fourth place in the standings.

Black said after the race, "For us, third place is almost like a victory. It was important for us to score points here. My teammates did a great job during the race and, as we all know, the conditions here are extremely hot. The team did an excellent job in the pits. So, I'm very happy with this result and it's an honour to be on the track with all these superbike and MotoGP riders. It shows the level of competition in endurance today."

 

Linfoot commented, "The first part of our race was quite eventful for me. Obviously, the conditions were pretty tough out there, but my teammates were fast, and the team did a great job. We didn't make any mistakes after that. During the final stint, I really gave it my all on the track to get us onto the podium. This third place at Suzuka is fantastic for the whole team because we've had so many problems since the start of the season. I'm really happy and I hope to come back here next year to do it all again."

 

Atsumi added, "I am very happy to have had the opportunity to lead the team to the podium. I really did my best. The race was very physically demanding, and I wasn't really able to do everything I wanted to at the end of the race. Dan was able to do the final stint, and I'm very grateful to him. He did an excellent job, and we're back on the podium, just like last year. It's fantastic. We're now preparing for the Bol d'Or, aiming both for the championship and victory."