Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Seven Stars Honda 11’s Nicky Hayden and Yoshimura Suzuki GP1 Daxim’s Atsushi Watanabe both crashed in turn one at the start of lap two of the Suzuka 8-Hours.

Television replays of the incident only showed both riders sliding into the first turn’s gravel trap.

Later, Hayden, with the help of cornerworkers, pushed his crashed Honda RC51, which had the rear wheel locked up, onto a crash truck.

Watanabe’s Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 caught fire in the gravel trap and was extinguished before it was also loaded onto the crash truck.

Team Sakurai Honda 74’s Tadayuki Okada crashed in turn one on the next lap and joined Hayden and Watanabe on the crash truck, which brought all three riders back to pit lane.

At the time of the Safety Car period, the running order was:

1. Seven Stars Honda 7
2. Kenz JTrust Mojo Suzuki
3. Team Sakurai Honda 71
4. F.C.C. TSR Zip-FM Racing Team
5. Weider Honda ATS DDBoys
6. YSP & Presto Racing
7. Corona Extra TiForce Endurance
8. F.C.C. TSR
9. Wins Factory & Vega Sports
10. Moto Liberty Arata-EX & Kiss-FM