Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. has announced the return of its factory team to the iconic Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race, making its presence felt in the Japanese round of the FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) as part of its 70th anniversary celebrations.
It will be the first time since 2019 that the Yamaha Racing Team will participate in the prestigious competition, which will take place between August 1 and 3, in what will be the 46th edition of the event.
To lead this return, the Japanese brand will rely on Katsuyuki Nakasuga, a four-time winner of the event and holder of an impressive record in the JSB1000 Japanese Superbike championship, where he has amassed 89 victories and 12 titles. He will be joined by Yamaha riders currently competing in MotoGP and the World Superbike Championship, forming a competitive trio.
The team will be led by Wataru Yoshikawa, who competed in the event in 1999 riding a Yamaha YZF-R7 and now assumes the role of Team Director. The motorcycle chosen for this edition will be the YZF-R1, dressed in a red and white color scheme inspired by the limited edition YZF-R7 from 1999, used in that year’s Suzuka 8 Hours.
The iconic number 21 will be present on the motorcycle as a tribute to the historic partnership between Yamaha and Shiseido, through the TECH 21 range, which sponsored the team in the 1980s. In 1985, Kenny Roberts and Tadahiko Taira were leading the race before being forced to retire with 30 minutes to go, in one of the most memorable moments in the history of the event.
Additionally, the Yamaha Racing Team will bring back a logo inspired by the design used in the late 1990s. Both the riders’ equipment and the pit box decoration will follow the team’s visual identity from that era.
The announcement was made during the Yamaha Motorsports Media Conference, held at the Meiji Yasuda Seimei building in Tokyo, where the brand revealed its sporting plans for 2025. During the event, Yamaha emphasized that the decision to return to Suzuka aligns with its philosophy of ‘Kando’, a Japanese concept that represents the fusion between deep satisfaction and intense emotion when experiencing something of exceptional value.
With this participation, Yamaha aims to provide this feeling to its fans around the world, while also launching itself into the fight for the Suzuka 8 Hours winner’s trophy, one of the most prestigious events in endurance motorcycling.
With an elite team and a strong connection to its legacy, Yamaha returns to Suzuka with a single objective: to win.