Having won the “Road to 8 hours” Suzuka 300km, a preliminary to the 8 hours, Yoshimura made an attempt at its 5th victory at the actual event. Suzuka experienced the hottest weather in the past 30 years and the conditions proved harsh to the teams and especially to the riders.
Despite the sweltering heat, the setting of Yoshimura’s machine was excellent. The engine power was also supported by the superb ignitability of spark plug, DENSO IRIDIUM RACING IU 01-31.
At the official practice on July 23^rd, Yoshimura came in 2^nd, 0.34 sec later than the top. However, it couldn’t secure a grid position at the 8 hours with this result; the ranking was to be decided in the superpole held the following day. On July 24^th, Yoshimura defeated 2^nd place FCC TSR Honda by 0.06 sec to take the 1^st place at the superpole, and gained the honor of starting at the front row at the official grid.
Around 80,000 spectators watched the final race. Yoshimura came in top for the 2^nd and 3rd hours. It dropped to 3^rd place by the 4^th hour but the time difference was a slight one.
However, it skidded and fell in the 106^th lap and dropped to 8^th place. It tried its best to catch up subsequently but only managed the 6^th place in the end.

PLOT (Headquarters, Aichi Prefecture Kariya City), a young company dealing mainly with production and wholesale distribution of motorcycle parts and accessories, has been participating in the All Japan Road Race Championship in recent years.
It has commendable performance at the 8 hours by attaining 6^th and 5^th places.
5^th in the practice race, PLOT showed consistent racing in the 8 hours but unfortunately missed the chance to mount the podium. Nevertheless, it achieved a respectable 4^th place. PLOT used spark plug IRIDIUM RACING IU01-31.

Pictures of IRIDIUM RACING IU01-31

Superpole/Starting Grid

Pos.	Team	Machine	Rider	S.P.Time	PLUG
1	YOSHIMURA SUZUKI with ENEOS	S-GSX-R1000	D.SAKAI/ N.AOKI/ Y.KAGAYAMA	2'07.905
2	F.C.C.TSR Honda	H-CBR1000RR	K.AKIYOSHI/ J.REA/ Y.TAKAHASHI	2'07.963
3	Keihin Kohara Racing Team	H-CBR1000RR	S.ITO/ M.TAMADA	2'08.268
4	MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO.	H-CBR1000RR	R.KIYONARI/ T.NAKAGAMI/T.TAKAHASHI	2'08.548
5	PLOT FARO PANTHERA	S-GSX-R1000	O.DEGUCHI/ T.YASUDA/ Y.KODAMA	2'09.873
6	Honda DREAM RT SAKURAI HONDA	H-CBR1000RR	W.MAXWELL/ C.KAMEYA	2'10.888
7	Teluru·HoneyBeeRacing	H-CBR1000RR	H.NODA/ T.SEKIGUCHI	2'12.155
8	YAMAHA AUSTRIA RACING TEAM	Y-YZF-R1	I.JERMAN/ S.MARTIN/G.GIABBANI	2'38.773
9	CROWN KEIBIHOSYOU RACING	H-CBR1000RR	T.HAMAGUCHI/ K.KITAGUCHI/ S.TANI	2'10.190
10	EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 TRICKSTAR	K-ZX-10R	S.TAKEISHI/T.SERIZAWA/ Y.KONNO

Results

Pos.	Team			Machine	Laps	PLUG
	1st Rider	2nd Rider	3rd Rider
1	MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO.			H-CBR1000RR	215
	R.KIYONARI	T.NAKAGAMI	T.TAKAHASHI
2	Keihin Kohara Racing Team			H-CBR1000RR	214
	S.ITO	M.TAMADA
3	F.C.C.TSR Honda			H-CBR1000RR	213
	K.AKIYOSHI	J.REA	Y.TAKAHASHI
4	PLOT FARO PANTHERA			S-GSX-R1000	212
	O.DEGUCHI	T.YASUDA	Y.KODAMA
5	TEAM PLUS ONE			H-CBR1000RR	211
	S.IWATA	Y.TESHIMA
6	YOSHIMURA SUZUKI with ENEOS			S-GSX-R1000	211
	D.SAKAI	N.AOKI	Y.KAGAYAMA
7	Teluru·HoneyBeeRacing			H-CBR1000RR	210
	H.NODA	T.SEKIGUCHI
8	BEET RACING			K-ZX-10R	208
	H.TAKAHASHI	Y.HATANO	O.NISHIJIMA
9	TEAM BOLLIGER SWITZERLAND #8			K-ZX-10R	206
	H.SAIGER	P.MUFF	R.STAMM
10	Honda ESCARGOT&PGR&SAYAMA&H-TEC(E)			H-CBR1000RR	206
	M.KUBOYAMA	T.NAKATSUHARA