Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

A “Supplementary Regulation” limiting teams to 10 sets of tires for all of practice and qualifying at the Suzuka 8-Hours was a surprise to regular Endurance World Championship teams and is forcing many to make compromises.

“No, we just found out when we arrived here,” said Zongshen Suzuki’s Stephane Mertens when asked if he knew of the 10-tire limit before coming to Suzuka. “We didn’t know anything about it. It’s very strange because we are competing the World Championship–this is a race part of the World Endurance Championship, and they don’t follow the rules of the World Championship. This is a personal rule of Suzuka.

“It’s a question of agreement between FIM and Suzuka organizer. Of course something is wrong. Like with three riders. In the World Championship, we can compete with three riders. Not at Suzuka. For the first time they, the organizer, agreed that the World Championship teams can race with three riders if they want to. So for that they agree, but for the tires…no, they don’t want to change their personal rules for the FIM one. Sometimes it’s a little bit strange.”

The 10 sets of tires have to last teams for up to eight hours of practice and qualifying Friday, a 20-minute warm-up Sunday morning and the 8-hour race. (Tires used during the Superpole-like “Special Stage” and the “Special Stage” warm-up session are excluding from the 10-tire limit.)

As a result, some teams, even Seven Stars Honda 11’s Nicky Hayden and Ryuichi Kiyonari, have had to share tires. “I got one new set this morning,” said Hayden. “Then I put four laps on a tire and Ryuichi used it. Then I’m about to go out on one of his old ones.”

Zongshen Suzuki 1 only used two sets of tires Friday, but because they will run an 8-stop race, they will also have to re-use one set of tires. Suzuki GB Phase One put a few laps on many tires in practice and plan to re-use several of them in the race.

“Our particular problem is we have no knowledge of which tires work best here,” said Suzuki GB Phase One Team Manager Russell Benney. “We’ve had to compare a few tires while at the same time put a few aside for the race. That’s led us into a situation where we have a whole selection of tires for the race rather than anything that’s pre-planned. We’ve got five tires set aside that we feel are optimum, and we’ve got a pile of tires that are four or five laps old. It should be interesting. Clearly, the teams that have had the opportunity to test here (like Seven Stars Honda and several Japan-based teams) will have an advantage, but for the bulk of the field it just throws another wobbler into the equation.”