2025 Suzuka 8 Hours
Jack Miller to race Suzuka 8H
Jack Miller will join the factory Yamaha Racing Team for the 2025 Suzuka 8 Hours, marking Yamaha’s first official factory entry in the event since 2019. The move comes as part of the brand’s celebrations for its 70th anniversary, adding extra significance to their return to one of endurance racing’s most prestigious events.
Miller already has experience in endurance racing. He took part in the Suzuka 8 Hours once before in 2017. Though he finished just off the podium in fourth place, he caught the endurance racing bug and fell in love with the prominent Japanese event. He has been dreaming of a return ever since, and he feels all the more honoured to have been selected by Yamaha for the 2025 factory line-up.
Jack Miller
“It’s obviously a massive honour for me to be able to represent Yamaha at the Suzuka 8 Hours this year. It’s a race I’ve been wanting to go back to since 2017 when I finished fourth, losing to Yamaha that time. It’s a big pleasure that I get to ride that Yamaha R1 motorcycle this time and represent the factory Yamaha Racing Team in Japan at such a prestigious race. Like I said, I’ve been dreaming of this race, and to have the opportunity to come back with such a strong team is a massive pleasure. I look forward to hopefully a good result for them at home and receiving some big support from the Japanese fans.”
Yamaha last won the Suzuka 8 Hours in 2018 with Honda taking victory for the past three years to extend its record to 30 wins.
Miller will be joined by seasoned Suzuka 8 Hours rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga, who played an integral part in Yamaha Factory Racing Team’s four-consecutive victories (2015-2018) and is also a 12-time All Japan Road Race JSB1000 Champion. Yamaha’s third rider for the 2025 Suzuka 8 Hours event will be selected from Yamaha’s current crop of WorldSBK riders, with an announcement to follow shortly.
The appointed Team Manager for the factory entry is a rider who himself contested in the 1999 Suzuka 8 Hours and took the All Japan Road Racing Superbike title that same year: Wataru Yoshikawa, one of Yamaha’s iconic stars of the 1990s.
The Yamaha Racing Team will complete two private test days on July 3-4 before they officially return to action at the 46th “Coca-Cola” Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race on Friday, August 1 when practice and qualifying get underway ahead of the traditional Top Ten Trial on Saturday and the Race on Sunday.
Tetsu Ono – Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.‘s Motorsports Strategy Division General Manager
“This year marks the 70th anniversary of Yamaha’s founding, and our factory entry in the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race is a major part of our commemorative racing programme. With the goal of writing a new page in our 70-year history of taking on challenges and to deliver excitement to our fans worldwide who have supported us throughout those 70 years, we have been looking for the best rider line-up to win the Suzuka 8 Hours. I am now proud to announce that our second rider will be current MotoGP regular Jack Miller.
“Miller has been a very important part of our double factory line-up in MotoGP. Since the opening round of the season, he has contributed not just to testing and development but has also spurred on the entire Yamaha team with his fighting attitude and strong presence. With his previous experience in the Suzuka 8 Hours he is the perfect fit for the Yamaha Racing Team as we aim for victory in 2025.
“Just as he already does in MotoGP, Miller will bring to the team his experience, knowledge, passion, and fighting spirit. With Miller in our line-up, we’re aiming to put on a race that will be remembered by fans around the world. The team’s third rider will be announced at a later date, so please keep an eye on future announcements.”
Yamaha’s Suzuka 8 Hours History
Yamaha‘s factory effort at Suzuka began in earnest in 1985. Before 2002, Yamaha had at times fielded international star-studded full factory teams and had hoisted the winner‘s trophy high beneath the firework-filled skies at Suzuka a total of four times: in 1987, 1988, 1990, and 1996.
From 2003 onward, Yamaha discontinued having full factory team entries and limited itself to a support role assisting Europe-based Yamaha teams competing as part of the FIM Endurance World Championship.
However, in 2015 Yamaha brought back its full factory team to highlight its 60th anniversary and the release of an all-new YZF-R1. After taking Yamaha’s fifth win at the Suzuka 8 Hours that year in stunning fashion following a 19-year drought, the Yamaha Factory Racing Team was nigh unbeatable, winning the race again the next two years for a hat-trick of victories. With 2018 marking the YZF-R1’s 20th anniversary, a special red-and-white race livery was run to commemorate the original R1, and the factory team secured a record-setting fourth straight win.
In 2019, the Yamaha Factory Racing Team sported a revival of the colour scheme used by the legendary 1985 Yamaha TECH21 Team, the origin of Yamaha’s now iconic #21 race number. The factory squad battled for victory the entire race. Though a record-resetting fifth consecutive win eluded the team, the race was a thrilling addition to the storied history of the Suzuka 8 Hours.
In 2020 and 2021, the Suzuka 8 Hours was cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, but it returned to the EWC calendar in 2022. However, the Yamaha Factory Racing Team did not take part in the 2022, 2023, or 2024 editions, but Yamaha still landed a podium.
In 2024, the Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team (YART) secured their first pole position since 2012 and 2013 (both set by Nakasuga) thanks to Marvin Fritz recording a 2’05.130s lap in the Top 10 Trial. It was Yamaha’s first pole since 2017 and 2019 (also both set by Nakasuga).
Niccolò Canepa was chosen to ride the opening stint for the Race. Canepa, Fritz, and Karel Hanika, showed grit in the 8-hour competition, riding in extreme temperatures and high humidity. In the end, YART completed 220 laps, the same as the leader, which set a record for the most laps ever recorded in a Suzuka 8 Hours race. The YART team finished on the podium in second place, 7.86s from the winners (after the 40-second penalty that the ‘Team HRC with Japan Post’ received for violating a rule during their final pit stop). It was the YART team’s first time visiting the Suzuka 8 Hours rostrum.
As part of Yamaha’s 70th anniversary celebrations, the factory Yamaha Racing Team will make a comeback in the renowned Suzuka 8 Hours event this year with the rider line-up consisting of 12-time All Japan Road Race JSB1000 Champion and Suzuka 8 Hours legend Katsuyuki Nakasuga, MotoGP-star Jack Miller, and one of Yamaha’s WorldSBK riders (to be announced shortly).
The appointed Team Manager for the factory team, Wataru Yoshikawa, is a rider who himself contested the 1999 Suzuka 8 Hours on the YZF-R7 in addition to winning an All Japan title on that iconic machine. He was one of Yamaha’s star factory riders in the 1990s and is to many a representative of that era of racing.
The 2025 team will race a specially liveried YZF-R1, adorned with the traditional #21. The special new design is inspired by Yamaha Racing Team’s YZF-R7 that Yoshikawa rode in 1999. The YZF-R7 model was first released in that year in a limited edition of 500 units worldwide.
In 2025, the team is called ‘Yamaha Racing Team’ as this name was used by Yamaha’s factory Suzuka 8 Hours team in the late 1990s. The 2025 team logo is a version of the logo used at the time with an updated motif. Rider and team staff clothing and the look of the team’s garage are also coordinated to reflect the 1999 design.
Yamaha’s Suzuka 8 Hours Victories
1987 – Shiseido TECH21 Racing Team – YZF750 (Martin Wimmer, Kevin Magee)
1988 – Team Lucky Strike Roberts – YZF750 (Kevin Magee, Wayne Rainey)
1990 – Shiseido TECH21 Racing Team – YZF750 (Tadahiko Taira, Eddie Lawson)
1996 – Yamaha Racing Team – YZF750 (Colin Edwards, Noriyuki Haga)
2015 – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – YZF-R1 (Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Pol Espargaró, Bradley Smith)
2016 – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – YZF-R1 (Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes, Pol Espargaró)
2017 – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – YZF-R1 (Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes, Michael van der Mark)
2018 – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – YZF-R1 (Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes, Michael van der Mark)
