LCR Honda MotoGP racer Johann Zarco has reaffirmed his value to his Japanese employer by helping its factory team to victory in the 45th running of the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race.
Joined by Takumi Takahashi and Teppei Nagoe in the Japan Post-sponsored Team HRC, the trio secured the team’s third consecutive win on Honda’s home soil.
Former MotoGP test rider Takahashi started the race for the Honda team, and established an early lead over impressive underdog performer Team Kagayama Ducati.
He then handed the bike over first to Zarco and then Nagoe, with the Suzuka rookie Frenchman setting an impressive pace, close to that of team-mate Takahashi (now the most successful racer in Suzuka history with six victories).
From there on, their lead was almost unassailable - despite picking up a 40-second penalty in lieu of a ride-through stop-and-go sanction in the final 10 minutes of the race for a pitstop rule infringement - and they went on to take victory by over seven seconds from reigning world champion squad Yamaha Austria Race Team.
The Suzuka 8 Hours is still the single most important race of the year for Japanese manufacturers, with the race holding so much prestige due to the ultimate test the machines are put through on the iconic circuit.
The level of support pumped into the project by Honda in order to break a recent stranglehold of the race by arch-rival Yamaha hints at the importance of the race, as does the names that Honda has recruited in recent years to compete in it, with Zarco joining factory World Superbike racers Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona among those involved in Honda's current winning streak.
And, while his development work in MotoGP as part of satellite squad LCR will not have gone amiss of late as Honda's work hard to try to improve a diabolically bad RC213V bike in the premier class, Zarco’s strong Suzuka debut alongside veteran Honda star Takahashi will not have gone unnoticed within the company’s senior ranks either. It’s something that will likely mean his opinion carries more weight as they continue to work on updating the machine.
It also marks something of a return to Suzuka’s glory days, too, with big-name grand prix superstars more the norm rather than the exception decades ago, a position that the iconic race is hopefully working back towards given the increasing participation from more recent grand prix riders.
Past Honda winners at Suzuka include names like Valentino Rossi, Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and Carlos Checa - and Zarco’s strong debut at the race (and interest in returning next year to defend his title, should schedules allow) is an important sign that Honda is once again getting very serious about it.
But, it might not have all its own way in 2025 thanks to an admission made by senior Ducati figure Paolo Ciabatti, who was in attendance for the very first time in a supporting role for former British Superbike championship contender Yukio Kagayama’s newly-rebadged Ducati team.
It wasn’t an official Ducati factory team despite Ciabatti’s presence in its garage for the race, but Ciabatti hinted that he has ambitions to see Ducati become the first ever Italian factory team to win Suzuka - and he even suggested that it’s also something that’s on the bucket list of current MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia.
That’s created an even more enticing prospect given that Bagnaia’s 2025 MotoGP team-mate is set to be Marc Marquez, something that would potentially set Ducati up to have the ultimate dream team to take to Suzuka, especially if it could also convince reigning World Superbike champion Alvaro Bautista to lend his services to the ambitious project.
