Image: Supplied.

Australia has a new world champion after Taree’s Josh Hook captured the 2017-2018 Endurance World Championship (EWC) with F.C.C. TSR Honda France following a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours.

While Hook, alongside teammates Freddy Foray and Alan Techer, focused on the crown, it was Yamaha Factory Racing’s Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes who sealed a fourth-straight Suzuka win for the team.

The 41st Suzuka 8 Hours kept viewers in suspense until after nightfall. Following a thrilling duel for the lead between Kawasaki Team Green and Yamaha in the early stages of the race ahead of Red Bull Honda with Japan Post, in the end it was Yamaha Factory Racing Team that was victorious.

Having led the race at the start on a soaked track, Red Bull Honda with Japan Post (Takumi Takahashi, Takaaki Nakagami and Patrick Jacobsen) finished 30 seconds behind the winner. Kawasaki Team Green, who were one lap behind, came in third after being front and centre throughout the first half of the race.

Kazuma Watanabe, Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam waged a lengthy battle for the lead, however a rain shower threw Kawasaki’s plans into disarray. Rea crashed as he was entering the pits to switch from slick to wet tyres, causing the Kawasaki squad to lose precious time.

Suzuki S-Pulse Dream Racing IAI (Hideyuki Ogata, Tom Bridewell and Kasuki Watanabe) ran a flawless race to finish at the foot of an all-Japanese podium featuring Yamaha, Honda and Kawasaki.

A fifth-place finish resulted in F.C.C. TSR Honda France becoming the first Japanese team in the championship’s history to win the FIM EWC title. GMT94 Yamaha’s David Checa, Niccolo Canepa and Mike Di Meglio finished sixth. They were also awarded the Anthony Delhalle EWC Spirit Trophy for sheer perseverance in their quest for the world title.

It was a convincing race for the Honda Asia-Dream Racing team of Australian championship leader Troy Herfoss, scoring seventh, followed by KYB Moriwaki Motul Racing Honda, Honda Endurance Racing Team and Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing – recovering from an early crash – to complete the top 10.

Of the remaining Australians in the field, the BMW Motorrad39 squad of Damian and Alex Cudlin impressed for 13th, Josh Waters’ MotoMapSupply Suzuki team was 23rd overall and fourth of the Superstock 1000 entries.

Crashes from their teammates ruled both Broc Parkes (YART Yamaha) and Anthony West (Eva RT Webike Trickstar Kawasaki) out of the race, while Aaron Morris and Billy McConnell’s Team R2CL Suzuki effort were also declared non-finishers.

Detailed results