Continued from (TSR-CHRONICLE-1988 – 1992[1]First win in Suzuka 4 Hours! CBR400RR debut win!)

　In 1988, the 4-hour endurance race (Junior 4-endurance) for junior licensees (MFJ license type at that time) was extended by two hours and reborn as the Junior 6-hour endurance race (Suzuka 6-endurance). In 1988, the 4-hour endurance race (Junior 4 Endurance) for junior licensees (the MFJ license type at that time) was extended by 2 hours and reborn as the Junior 6-hour endurance race (Suzuka 6 Endurance). Thus, the Suzuka Circuit’s endurance hierarchy was formed into a pyramid with Suzuka 8 Endurance (International Class A) at the top, followed by Suzuka 6 Endurance (Junior) and Suzuka 4 Endurance (Novice). The ambition is to compete in all three categories, and to completely dominate the 4-hour and 6-hour races.

License name is as it was at that time.

　In 1988, they won the Suzuka 4-endurance race for the first time and achieved the debut victory of CBR400RR, and jumped up to the top team in Suzuka, both in name and reality. However, in 1990, following the 2nd place podium finish in the 6-endurance race with NSR250R, the team brought the first victory to NSR250R in the 4-endurance race, and also finished 26th in the Suzuka 8-endurance race with 192 laps completed, which was the first challenge under the name of Technical Sports.

　And 1991, an extremely epochal year for TSR in many ways, was another episode, although the racing season started dramatically in the spring. The epochal event in the endurance scene for Technical Sports that year was the “F.C.C./TR Technical Sports 1991 Suzuka 4, 6, and 8 Hour Endurance Series Activities” press conference held at the Welcome Plaza of Honda’s Aoyama Headquarters.

　In this report, Fujii, the team’s general manager (he was already called “general manager” at the time), declared his own ambitions for the team, and they were effective! He did exactly what he said, and although the team did not win the Suzuka 4 Hours Endurance Race, which was shortened to three hours due to rough weather, it did win the Suzuka 6 Hours Endurance Race with a convincing victory, lapping all the cars. The following year, in 1992, he won both the Suzuka 4-H Endurance and 6-H Endurance races, and in 1993, he won the Suzuka 6-H Endurance race for the third year in a row, making him unbeatable in this category. On the other hand, he was still unable to achieve the desired results in the Suzuka 8 Hours, and the weight of the 8 Hours inevitably increased in the Suzuka endurance race hierarchy of technical sports, and he pushed on toward the top of the hierarchy.

F.C.C./TR Technical Sports 1991 Suzuka 4hours, 6hours, 8hours Endurance Series Press Conference Team General Manager Masakazu Fujii Comment [Reprint] (Japanese)