John McGuinness and Keith Amor will start this 2011 Suzuka Eight-Hours from 20th on the grid after final qualfying saw former British Superbike man Yukio Kagayama set pole for the Yoshimura Suzuki team.
The road racing experts shaved valuable seconds off their lap times and managed to hold their own in a field of Suzuka veterans and specialist Japanese teams.
After all three riders posted 2’14 laps in the first session, McGuinness ended his second stint by securing the first 2’13 lap for the team. Donald was the last of the Honda TT Legends to head out and his impressive session resulted in the team’s best lap of the day – 2’13.961.
"I think 20th is a realistic position. As a rider you want more all the time but considering we hadn’t been on a bike round here until yesterday, we’ve done ok. A lot of people I’ve spoken to here have said that you can’t learn the track in a day and they are probably right! Anything can happen and we just need to put in eight consistent hours between us," said McGuinness.
"We’re all on a similar pace within half a second of each other so if we can stay consistent there’s no reason why we can’t get in the points and that’s what we’re looking for really."
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