From a press release issued by Team Suzuki:

MOTEGI – HOME RACE FOR SUZUKI

Suzuki’s mighty GSV-R MotoGP prototype goes home this weekend – for the fastest-ever racing Suzuki’s only race this year on Japanese soil.

The two factory machines, ridden by 2000 World Champion Kenny Roberts Jr. and team-mate John Hopkins, will be wearing their blue-and-white factory colours with pride, after a season in which steadily growing strength culminated in a best-of-year performance at the last round, the Portuguese GP.

The Suzukis had again qualified strongly in the top ten, and though Roberts dropped back with a minor but costly mechanical ailment, Hopkins claimed a personal career-best sixth place – only six tenths of a seconds from wresting fifth from rival Carlos Checa.

Now the team is bringing the bikes home, to race under the direct supervision of senior Suzuki factory racing and management personnel. Riders and crew have a strong resolve to reward their presence with another demonstration of the traditional racing marque’s growing strength in the MotoGP class.

Suzuki has a good record at Motegi, with Roberts claiming victory in 1999 and 2000. Hopes are high for a return to success in 2004.

“It’s a favourite track for both riders, and it’s also a track where we expect the Bridgestone tyres to perform very well,” said team manager Garry Taylor.

“Ever since Kenny’s pole position at Rio five races ago, our qualifying and race results have been getting consistently better,” he continued.

“John’s motivation is sky high at the moment, as he showed with a really impressive ride at Estoril, and a richly deserved career best finish. And I know that Kenny’s determination will be renewed after his disappointment in Portugal.

“We’re all looking forward to the race,” said Taylor.

The Motegi Twin-Ring circuit is an imposing and rather austere venue. Overlooked by the unused control tower for the banked oval track, the MotoGP bikes use a different circuit and a different pit complex, on the other side of the pit straight. The bikes run mainly out of sight and out of earshot, the track passing out beyond the banking through an underpass, then returning through a similar tunnel for the final corners.

From 2000 until last year, the race at Motegi was known as the Pacific GP, and was the second race of the year in Japan. This year, Suzuka was dropped from the calendar awaiting safety modifications, and Motegi resumed its inaugural 1999 title of Japanese GP.

The 12th of 16 rounds, the first of the end-of-season flyaways is separated from the following back-to-back trio in Qatar, Malaysia and Australia by a weekend’s break.

KENNY ROBERTS – SEE WHAT MOTEGI BRINGS:

“We’ve been working this season to get the bike the best possible track by track, and problems apart, we’ve made the most of what we have. Especially we’ve improved corner speed, though the nature of Motegi – U-bends and short straights – means that’s not so valuable there. But I’ve had good results at the track before with Suzuki – like beating Mick Doohan in the rain in 1999, my second GP win, and beating Rossi the next year. We’ll work to get the bike to its best, and see what the conditions bring.”

JOHN HOPKINS – AIM FOR THE TOP:

“I like Motegi – it’s kind of all action, hard braking, and I’ve always had fun there. Not so much last year, with my first turn crash and some bad consequences, but that’s past now. This season has really been coming together over the last races. We have the bike working real good and the Bridgestone tyres keep getting better. I just missed out on the top five at Estoril. That’s my aim for this race too.”

ABOUT THIS RACE:

After a false start in the Sixties, with races run for smaller classes only, at Suzuka and Fuji, the Japanese GP proper started at Suzuka in 1987, and has bee n on th e calendar ever since – this is the 18th running. Apart from an inaugural visit to Motegi in 1999, it has until now taken place at Suzuka. Last year’s fatal injury to Daijiro Kato saw that circuit struck off the calendar, and this year’s national race returns to Motegi, where since 2000 a second Japanese race has run under the title of Pacific GP. North-east of Tokyo in a scenic hilly area, Motegi is a spectacular all-in-one motoring and racing area, incorporating both racing and road driver education, kart tracks and a major mainly motorcycling museum.


ABOUT THIS TRACK:

The Twin Ring is actually two circuits – the US-style banked oval, with its own pits, grandstands and infrastructure, and the 2.98-mile road-racing track, with pits and paddock within the oval, and the track looping out under the banking through one underpass, returning through another for the final chicane back onto the short pit straight. Precise computer-designed corners loop the track back and forth within the oval, with more of the same outside – slow corners linked by short power-burst straights. It seems a sterile design, but there is enough rise and fall in the terrain to inject interest. “It’s a surprisingly fun track,” said double winner Kenny Roberts Jr.


GP DATA:

Twin-Ring Motegi
Circuit Length: 2.983 miles / 4.801 km
Lap Record: 1:48.885 – 98.631 mph / 158.732 km/h. V Rossi (Honda), 2004
2003 Race Winner: M Biaggi (Honda)
2003 Race Average: 43:57.590 – 97.721 mph / 157.267 km/h.
2003 Fastest Race Lap: see lap record
2003 Pole Position: Biaggi 1:47.696
2003 KENNY ROBERTS: 15th, qualified 19th (Suzuki)
2003 JOHN HOPKINS: DNF, qualified 16th (Suzuki)