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Fuji Speedway Race (July 6th, 2008)

Delightful write-up!

MOB - you are a funny guy :D Well, done on your 4th position.

Philip
 
Yep, enjoyed the account... Congrats on the podium finish!
 
Well done!

Michael (m o b) & Alain,
After taking the time to read your blog write-up, I must say I was suitably impressed. And it reminded me of the "Tokyo-Enduro" ride:
https://tokyocycle.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=509&page=8

As both Philip & Phil mentioned; Well Done on your 4th-place (podium) finish.
Particularly after the both of you finding out you would both need to be on the track for the entire 210 mins (3 1/2 hours?) - That's gotta hurt!

Anyway, the next one will probably be the "Enduro" - Similar; 5km loop circuit. Almost flat... Why don't you NFCC guys come along?

Last year, we (TCC) were limited to 4 four-man teams:
TCC A,
TCC B,
TCC C,
TCC Go-Go-Gals.

16 riders only, but a lot more members wished they were there!

There is an option to get around this "numbers" limitation.
We just change the team-names to:
TAC,
TBC,
TCC,
TDC,
TEC,
TFC
TGC....

...If we get to "TZC", there won't be room for any other riders.

BUT, it's an option.
If you think you'd like to be there, please reply!
Travis
 
Endurance Race Schedule 2008

Travis,

Thanks for the nice words. I think I met you once at the Giro de Hotaka last year, but after the race I was much too tired to engage in more than friendly conversation.

Sure, I would love to join a strong TCC team for the Tokyo Endurance Race at the end of the year. I never raced at the Showa Kinen Koen in Tachikawa but I would love to do.

I am associated with two teams. Positivo Espresso is a group of foreigners, mainly interested in riding out together on the weekends, sometimes attending races. You may know Tom and Marek, who used to ride with TCC as well.
There are less than 10 regular riders at Positivo Espresso.

NFCC (or Nihon Francais Cycyling Club) is more focused on racing, with some strong riders in the BR-1 and BR-2 classes and a lot of triathletes. Tom and me are also members of the NFCC. There are maybe 30 riders at different levels.

I love to attend team endurance races and I have done some in the past: Tsukuba, Motegi, Yokohama Stadium, Shuzenji and now Fuji Speedway. Some of the JCRC races like Hitachi Naka and Saiko have now endurance races included in the schedule as well. The problem for me is to gather enough team members for the races. Positivo Espresso and NFCC combined fields only 40 or so riders, many who don't want to race at all, or do only hill climbs. Then there is the family and other obligations, so it takes a lot of phone calls, e-mails and sometimes oure insistence to get 4 or 5 people together over a period of some weeks.

In contrast to that TCC has a much bigger pool of potential riders and there would be the chance to start with more than one team. Teams at different levels could be formed and the more people we are at the race the more fun it is. So yes, why don't we attend some of the remaining endurance races of 2008 as a combined TCC-NFCC-PE team? I don't care under which team name to start at all. It really doesn't matter too much.

The most important point is that there is ONE guy feeling responsible for all the organisation of the races; distributing infos, deciding the riders and teams, preparing the registration in time, collecting the money, organizing transport etc.
Also it is always good if you have a good record of the race (photos, lap time charts, race analysis, reports) so that I can later speak and reflect about it. Riding out there is hard and not very much fun. Speaking about it later is much better. But unfortunately you have to ride first.

Having said this, let's take a look at the remaining endurance races for 2008 (as far as I know):

JUL 19 Tsukuba Eight Hours endurance
On a car racing track, 2.1 km long and pretty flat. High speed only. Unfortunately deadline was already in June. I will attend with a combined NFCC - Positivo Espresso Team this year. But next year there is one in May and one in August most likely.

OCT 05 MOTEGI 7 HOURS ENDURANCE RACE
Wonderful race in the North on the Honda motorcycle race track somewhere in the woods up there. About 5 km long with only one not too steep climb where one has to take care not to drop below 30 km/hr. I attended the 2006 and 2007 races, the later in the rain with Tom and Marek. Finished in 11th position.
Registration is between 7/29 and 9/9, how about going there with some teams.

But its quite far, I guess we need to stay in the area the night before.

OCT 11 YOKOHAMA STADIUM 3 HOURS PLUS 2 HOURS ENDURANCE

3.5 km flat course within the Nissan stadium and park in Yokohama. Flat with the exception of one super-stupid short ramp of 15%. The course is a little bit tricky, many technical corners, roads are partly not too wide, a lot of inexperienced riders. Attended in 2006 and 2007.
Sorry, but I already decided to go solo for the king of endurance competition, that is 3 hours solo in the morning plus 2 hours solo in the afternoon. But why not additional TCC teams? Deadline is 9/23.

Plus there is a Teamkens Endurance race at Shuzenji on JUL 26
http://www.teamkens.co.jp/080726_5taig.html
You can still apply until Friday this week for this one. We finished last year in 3rd place in the 3men team category thanks to Tom. This year I will not attend, this race is simply very very hard. Shuzenji is not an easy track. You must love hill climbing.

And maybe there are some other JCRC / Tour of Japan endurance races, I would guess at least in Yokkaichi and in Saiko.

If somebody is interested, please start a new race thread, we will see where it takes us.
 
all about the racing

M O B
congrats on the 4th place:)
I too raced the Fuji speedway and had a blast I did the 100K and it was a hard race for sureand what an a place torace at spectacular ! I am about the racing and riding. I do tri's too but mostly bike races was looking to join a team in the Tokyo/hachioji area.hold an international license and a Cat 3 license in the states Any suggestions on a team? Categories in Japan how does one become a BR-2, or BR-3? looking to race a whole lot more in and around Japan. Considering Shimano road races end of August, Tour of Hokkaido, and the Tour De Okinawa 200km race
Stokes
 
Racing in Japan

Smoke,

I have only very limited knowledge of the racing organisation in Japan, especially if it is related to more professionell or high-level amateur racing.

Here is what I know.
There are some Racing organizations which organizer series of races in Japan. for example :

JCRC. http://www.jcrc-net.jp/

About 10 - 20 races per year are organized by JCRC, including the 5 Tour of Japan races by Nikkan Sports (see below). The type of races is varying, but the majority are road races of 10 - 50 km length on closed circuits such as Shuzenji, Gunma, Hitachi-Naka and the like. All races are well documented on their website, however only in Japanese. There are also some hill climbs.

Basically you will be allocated a SID (Sports ID?) and then you start in the X class. Once you finish in the top 6, you are promoted to the next highest class:
X => F => E => D => C => B => A => S => SS. The races are the same, but longer in the highest class, and the competition is getting stronger.

This is the theoretical way, but probably as a foreigner with licence you can start even C or B level without problems and skip the promotions.

JBCF http://www.jbcf-net.org/

Basically similar to the JCRC, but at a higher level. I don't know too much about them, but my club NFCC sports some riders with the JBCF. They have categories such as BR-1 to BR-3. Tom, another contributor on this website might be able to tell you more, or Stephane, who is the boss of the NFCC
stef"dot"forest"at"gmail"dot"com. They are however a little bit picky about nationality, as NFCC stands for Nippon-French-Cycyling-Club. I am lucky because I was born in French-occupied German territory although.

Then there are the pros, organized at other organizations I don't know.

There are some teams which you see again and again an races in Japan and they field different levels of riders. For example

Nalsima Friends, which is associated with the bike store
http://www.nalsimafrend.jp/cgi-bin/cms/index.cgi

Ravanello, quite strong team and some foreigners
http://www.ravanello.com/

YouCan, associated with the bike store of the same name
http://www.c-youcan.com/

KanekoInks, associated with the bike store of the same name
http://www.kanekoroad.com/

And many more. I have ridden with a pure Japanese club for about 3 years and the experience was partly good, partly not so good. There is more team spirit but also more team duty.

Apart from that there are many events which are organized by individuals or smaller organisations or singular events. Nikkan Sports (Sport Newspaper) is organizing the Tour du Japn with JCRC, five races a year. Then there is the Fuji Hill Climb, the listed endurance races and many more. Cycle-Sports, the magazine has always a good list of these events.

The sum it up, there are many nice opportunities. In contrast to Europe however it requires some planing and some paperwork, you cannot simply show up at the race and register. If you can communicate in Japanese no problem to do all this alone. If you cannot it is better to belong to a team or some loose formation such the TCC.

Hope I could help. Perhaps some of the other TCC riders could contribute their experiences as well.
 
Fuji Speedway Results

Oh by the way, does anybody know where the results from the Fuji Speedway race are published on the web?

Allsports has released 11.974 photos from the event :

http://allsports.jp/event/00002060.html

Should I seriously consider to check all of them instead of riding this weekend?
 
info

Smoke,

I have only very limited knowledge of the racing organisation in Japan, especially if it is related to more professionell or high-level amateur racing.

Here is what I know.
There are some Racing organizations which organizer series of races in Japan. for example :

JCRC. http://www.jcrc-net.jp/

About 10 - 20 races per year are organized by JCRC, including the 5 Tour of Japan races by Nikkan Sports (see below). The type of races is varying, but the majority are road races of 10 - 50 km length on closed circuits such as Shuzenji, Gunma, Hitachi-Naka and the like. All races are well documented on their website, however only in Japanese. There are also some hill climbs.

Basically you will be allocated a SID (Sports ID?) and then you start in the X class. Once you finish in the top 6, you are promoted to the next highest class:
X => F => E => D => C => B => A => S => SS. The races are the same, but longer in the highest class, and the competition is getting stronger.

This is the theoretical way, but probably as a foreigner with licence you can start even C or B level without problems and skip the promotions.

JBCF http://www.jbcf-net.org/

Basically similar to the JCRC, but at a higher level. I don't know too much about them, but my club NFCC sports some riders with the JBCF. They have categories such as BR-1 to BR-3. Tom, another contributor on this website might be able to tell you more, or Stephane, who is the boss of the NFCC
stef"dot"forest"at"gmail"dot"com. They are however a little bit picky about nationality, as NFCC stands for Nippon-French-Cycyling-Club. I am lucky because I was born in French-occupied German territory although.

Then there are the pros, organized at other organizations I don't know.

There are some teams which you see again and again an races in Japan and they field different levels of riders. For example

Nalsima Friends, which is associated with the bike store
http://www.nalsimafrend.jp/cgi-bin/cms/index.cgi

Ravanello, quite strong team and some foreigners
http://www.ravanello.com/

YouCan, associated with the bike store of the same name
http://www.c-youcan.com/

KanekoInks, associated with the bike store of the same name
http://www.kanekoroad.com/

And many more. I have ridden with a pure Japanese club for about 3 years and the experience was partly good, partly not so good. There is more team spirit but also more team duty.

Apart from that there are many events which are organized by individuals or smaller organisations or singular events. Nikkan Sports (Sport Newspaper) is organizing the Tour du Japn with JCRC, five races a year. Then there is the Fuji Hill Climb, the listed endurance races and many more. Cycle-Sports, the magazine has always a good list of these events.

The sum it up, there are many nice opportunities. In contrast to Europe however it requires some planing and some paperwork, you cannot simply show up at the race and register. If you can communicate in Japanese no problem to do all this alone. If you cannot it is better to belong to a team or some loose formation such the TCC.

Hope I could help. Perhaps some of the other TCC riders could contribute their experiences as well.
MOB
Thanks for the info will press with contacting NFCC
Stokes
 
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