Image: Supplied.

Australia’s Josh Waters has been ruled out of the 2023 Suzuka 8 Hours after he was taken out in a qualifying session at the Japanese circuit.

Waters was contesting the event with the S-Pulse Dream Racing team onboard a Suzuki alongside  Cocoro Atsumi and Marcel Schroetter, but has been forced to the sidelines following a crash during the opening laps of his first qualifying session yesterday.

“Devastated to say that my Suzuka 8 Hour race has ended before it even started by no fault of my own,” Waters shared. “An incident in the opening laps of qualifying yesterday saw me get taken out with quite a bit of force, leaving me with no choice but to sadly retire from the race due to a few small injuries attained that need some further attention.

“While the incident was by no means my fault, I can’t help but say sorry to the team and my teammates, and to all the guys back home; we made a number of sacrifices to be a part of this year’s Suzuka 8 Hour as we knew were in for a strong result, so to be taken out and having that opportunity cut short is a hard pill to swallow!

“A massive good luck to the S-Pulse Dream Racing team ahead of tomorrow’s race, we’ll be there and cheering for you guys.”

While it’s a disappointing end for Waters’ assault on the Suzuka 8 Hours this year, the McMartin Racing Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship contender has time on his side before ASBK resumes with round six of the 2023 season at Phillip Island between 27-29 October.

Meanwhile, Team HRC qualified on pole for the Suzuka 8 Hours as the S-Pulse Dream Racing team will line up in P9 for tomorrow’s third round of the 2023 Endurance World Championship (EWC) in Japan.