Opinion: The biggest superbike race in the world

This weekend sees the most important superbike race in the world take place. It’s not the Senior TT at the Isle of Man, it’s not the final round of the World Superbike championship in Qatar or the MCE British Superbike Showdown finale – it’s by far and above Japan’s Suzuka 8 Hour endurance race.

So what makes this race, once a battle of huge important but almost forgotten by Europeans in recent years, just so important? Simple – the huge level of backing pumped into the class by the Japanese manufacturers.

No other race has so many factory teams or superstar riders. Kawasaki have drafted in BSB title contender and double winner Leon Haslam this year to head their new ZX-10R project, while reigning BSB champion Josh Brookes joins Suzuki’s MotoGP test rider Takuya Tsuda and the legendary Nori Haga at Yoshimura Suzuki.

Yamaha have pulled out all the stops for the second year in a row, with MotoGP racer and defending champion Pol Espargaró joined by victorious 2015 teammate (and four-time Japanese champion) Kats Nakasuga and Britain’s own Alex Lowes on a machine that Bradley Smith described last year as closer to an M1 than an R1.

But the real big guns are Honda. Literally a home race – they own Suzuka and started the race – they’ve brought Nicky Hayden, Michael van der Mark, PJ Jacobsen, Dominique Aegerter and Takumi Takahashi among others to try and regain their crown.

Add to that a stable of factory-supported teams, comprised of everything from JSB front-runners to teams made up of students from their training colleges and factories, and you see how seriously they take it.

Add to that mix 100,000 of the most passionate fans you’ll ever meet, the top CEOs and chair people of all the manufacturers, and a slew of local and international celebrities, and you start to get the picture of just how seriously the big four take Suzuka.