Former two-time MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner will begin his Suzuka 8 Hours testing this week at the famed Japanese track.
Stoner will race a Honda CBR1000RR-based World Endurance-spec machine in the 2015 Suzuka 8 Hours on 26 July. He will be teamed with PATA Honda WSBK rider Michael van der Mark and Japanese ace Takumi Takahashi.
Suzuka remains one of the world’s grand old “classic” circuits. It’s still quite fast, challenging and like most tracks of that era not as safe other more modern circuits.
MotoGP left Suzuka after the 2003 race when Daijiro Kato suffered fatal injuries in a race crash. Stoner was a 125 rider in 2003 and while he raced the ’03 event at the famed Suzuka circuit he did not finish the race.
The FIM World Endurance series has never abandoned Suzuka and while Suzuka may be unsafe for MotoGP, WEC-spec “Superbikes” are considerably slower than any factory MotoGP racer.
Honda has won the Suzuka 8 Hours the last five years in a row.
