From a press release issued by FGSport Group:

Shinichi Itoh on the FCC-TSR Zip-FM Honda CBR1000RR has taken pole position for tomorrow’s Suzuka 8 Hours round of the World Endurance Championship after a gripping two stage Superpole competiton.

The first “Attack” stage saw the Seven Stars Hondas ridden by Izutsu (7) and Kamada (11) move up to first and second places, with Yukio Kagayama’s Yoshimura Suzuki in third. Kagayama’s Suzuki was sliding under power out of several fast corners; none of the leading bikes are short of power this year. Tsujimura on the FCC-TSR Honda slipped to fourth place, and the Kenz Motul Suzuki of Kitagawa was fifth.

Police Nationale Tsukigi Honda’s Gwen Giabbani held on to his fifteenth place during the Attack stage, but his team mate Taku Kishida was not so lucky in the second “Jump-Up” part of the Special Stage qualifying. Kishida lost the front end of the Police Nationale Tsukigi Honda Fireblade in Spoon Curve, crashing down to twentieth place.

Kiyonari on the No.11 Seven Stars Honda lost two seconds due to rear wheel slides and front-end chatter on his Jump-Up lap, while Nakatomi on the YSP Presto Yamaha R1 put in a smooth performance to move up several places. Ukawa briefly put the No.7 Seven Stars Honda into first place after Watanabe on the Yoshimura Suzuki was unable to improve on Kagayama’s time.

However, the best performance of Special Stage qualifying came from former Grand Prix star Shinichi Itoh who shaved off tenths of a second through each sector of the circuit to finish his lap over half a second under Izutsu’s time from the Attack Stage, and so “Jump Up” to pole position with a record lap time of 2:09.274.

Special Stage – Top Ten

1st 778 – FCC TSR Zip-FM Racing Team – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – S.Ito 2:09.274

2nd 7 – Seven Stars Honda – JPN – Honda CBR1000RRW – H.Izutsu 2:09.817

3rd 11 – Seven Stars Honda – JPN – Honda CBR1000RRW – G.Kamada 2:10.176

4th 12 – Yoshimura Suzuki – JPN – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – A.Watanabe 2:10.275

5th 73 – Team Harc-Pro – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – Y.Konishi 2:10.776

6th 21 – YSP Presto Racing – JPN – Yamaha YZF-R1 – S.Nakatomi 2:10.846

7th 8 – Kenz Motul Suzuki – JPN – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – K.Kitagawa 2:10.896

8th 4 – Masked Rider Blade – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – K.Tokudome 2:11.082

9th 44 – Weider Honda ATS DDBoys– JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – T.Hamaguchi 2:11.091

10th 72 – FCC TSR Honeybee – JPN – Honda CBR1000RR – K.Eguchi 2:11.645