Honda has announced it will not be fielding a full works team in this year's Suzuka Eight-Hours as part of cutbacks in its racing programme, but its commitment to MotoGP remains solid.

The factory will continue to supply customer bikes to other teams but the manufacturer's star riders, such as Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari who won last year's race, will not be on official HRC bikes.

Traditionally, the Eight-Hours is Honda's biggest event of the year and it usually seen to take it more seriously than even the whole MotoGP championship.

"Our works team will not participate this year. It may come back next year," a Honda Motor spokeswoman said.

The announcement gives some indication that Honda may adopt the customer bike policy in MotoGP for 2010 in order to further cut costs.