Yamaha to Call Up MotoGP and WSBK Stars for Suzuka 8 Hours Return

Yamaha has confirmed it will return to the famous Suzuka 8 Hour race in 2025 and in doing so will call upon riders from its MotoGP and World Superbike line ups.

Yamaha’s return to the endurance race will be as a full factory team while it will also mark the Japanese company’s 70th anniversary celebrations.

During an announcement in Tokyo, Yamaha officials also unveiled the bike that will race at the event, which features a retro-inspired white and red livery.

Leading the team’s charge will be four-time winner of the Suzuka 8 Hours, Katsuyuki Nakasuga, while it was confirmed that the two remaining seats will be filled by Yamaha’s highly talented pool of riders from MotoGP and World Superbike.

As part of the selection process, Yamaha will have 2021 MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo, current Monster Energy team-mate Alex Rins and the Pramac duo of Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira to choose from.

On the World Superbike side of things, Jonathan Rea is the headline name that could be chosen and the six-time world champion has already achieved Suzuka 8 Hour glory with both Honda and Kawasaki.

From there, Andrea Locatelli will also be in contention as will the GRT Yamaha duo of Remy Gardner and Dominique Aegerter.

For the purists, seeing a line-up of Quartararo and Rea alongside Nakasuga would be quite the dream, but with Rea out injured at the moment and struggling to make the R1 his own, there could be better options for the Iwata-based manufacturer.

It’s unclear what the selection process will look like and what will determine which riders get the nod, but it’s most likely to be based on their performance over the course of 2025, while Yamaha could also opt to put its biggest names in the team, such as Quartararo and Rea - should the latter be fit.

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