Van der Mark delighted to join Stoner at ‘special’ Suzuka

Pata Honda World Superbike racer Michael van der Mark says he’s delighted to have former double GP champion Casey Stoner join him for this year’s Suzuka 8hr race. Stoner comes into the MuSASHi RT Honda team as the rookie, joining double winners van der Mark and Takumi Takahashi.

“The Suzuka 8 Hour race is such a special event for all the fans and the Japanese people and not many riders get the chance to take part, even though many would like to. I also know what an important event it is for Honda so it’s a great honour for me to be asked to race the CBR1000RR once more, and this time with Casey as our teammate!

“The testing and race schedule is quite tough to combine with the World Superbike Championship, but I really enjoy riding at Suzuka so I’m very happy to make time for it. The bike is very different to my World Superbike CBR but it’s easy to ride so it’s not big problem to change. I’ve had two fantastic years with a great team and it would be really nice and something quite special to get a hat-trick of wins.”

The famous race, the second round of the Endurance World Championship, takes place in it’s historic slot of the last weekend in July.