"Mote tai," which is beloved by many motorcycle fans as the "world's largest grass race," celebrated its 16th event this year. On August 24 (Sat), a total of 116 teams participated in the official qualifying. In preparation for the 7-hour endurance final on the following day (Sun), a heated time attack was held, even more intense than usual. The qualifying for "Mote tai" divides all participating teams into two groups, A and B, and the ranking is determined by the combined best times of the first and second riders. In other words, it all depends on the performance of these two riders to secure a top position in the qualifying. Due to the rain that lasted until early morning, there were still some wet patches on the course, but the weather was sunny, and the session for the first rider of Group A started at 8:00 am.

In this group, #12 CLUB1.2FK Kushitani Kawaguchi's Nagano player, who participates in the BRAVE class, started off strongly from the beginning and recorded a best time of 2'18.642. Also in the BRAVE class, #6 PIPUPEU Electric Construction Sakai Koji's Tanura player showed a wonderful run and marked a best of 2'19.887. Following these two were #30 Auto Technic Sports' Miyazono player, but the result was far behind the top two with 2'22.790. As the road conditions were not yet completely dry, the difference in rider's abilities was clearly shown in the results.

The following session for the first rider in Group B showed a significant improvement in road conditions compared to Group A. As a result, rider Ishizuka from Team PENSKE, who competes in the WT class, rose to the top of Group B with a time of 2'18.215. Furthermore, this record was a fantastic run that surpassed the previous course record of 2'18.440 in the "Mote Endurance" WT class. Following behind was rider Yamamoto from YSS Racing Mercury, also competing in the WT class, with a time of 2'19.930. In addition, rider Kosakabashi from YSS Racing Bulldockatagos marked a time of 2'20.969. Due to the change in road conditions to dry on the record line, it was characteristic that the time difference between third place and beyond was close compared to Group A.

In the following second rider A group, #12 CLUB1.2FK Kusitani Kawaguchi's Sano player played a big role. The qualifying time of 2'17.637 was the only 17-second time, including the B group that ran after this, and became the top time of the second rider. #4 Team Pentsuke's Suzuki player was second in the B group and in the WT class with a time of 2'18.497, while #30 Auto Technic Sports' Moriyama player was third in the A group and in the WS class. And #1 YSS Racing Bulldog Tago's Kanayama player, who ran in the B group, took fourth place overall with a time of 2'21.179 and second place in the WT class.

As a result of the sessions by all first and second riders, the pole position was taken by #12 CLUB1.2FK Kushitani Kawaguchi, who marked a combined time of 4'36.279. The team, in their fourth year of participating in "Mote tai", is a strong contender as they achieved 2nd place overall in the 7-hour endurance race last year. "Since we were 2nd overall last year, our goal this year was to aim for pole position and victory. So, we were able to clear one goal by getting 1st place in qualifying. However, we are in the BRAVE class, which has a handicap in refueling time compared to other classes. I think we need to have faster lap times to overcome that handicap," commented the team. As they said, we hope to see them demonstrate their speed to overcome the handicap in the final race.

And at 1:30 PM, a 4-hour endurance race was held by the 39 teams that unfortunately did not qualify. The Le Mans-style start, which has become a tradition, was taken by the #130 Garage130R & Jr's, who started in first place in qualifying. They participated in the BRAVE class with their original machine and dominated the race, leaving a huge gap between them and the second place team, #69 Business Rally Art & withRS. The rest of the pack included #35 Onoue Service, #18 Quorerosso☆Indies, #822 RT Baku Soso Sena, and #881 8810R.

In the 4-hour endurance race, refueling during the final is essential. In addition, there are handicaps depending on the class, so the speed was overwhelmingly dominated by [#130 Garage130R & Jr's], but how to cover the long refueling time and lead to victory became the highlight of the race.

Around 1 hour after the start, the top runner 【#130 Garage130R＆Jr’s】pit in for refueling. In the meantime, 【#69 Business Rally Art＆withRS】who had been fighting for 2nd place, rose to the top. With a gap of about 0.7 seconds, 【#18 Quaerrosso☆Indies】took 2nd place, followed by 【#108 Underwater Camera Answer + Shoryu Farm】in 3rd, and 【#130 Garage130R＆Jr’s】in 4th. While each team pitted in around this time, 【#69 Business Rally Art＆withRS】continued to run without showing any signs of pitting. As a result, the team utilized the regulation of "maximum continuous riding time for one rider is 90 minutes" until the very end, and finally headed to their first refueling around 1 hour and 30 minutes after the start, at around 3 PM.

The race then unfolded with [#130 Garage130R & Jr's] taking a commanding lead. And at each pit stop, [#69 Business Rally Art & with RS] would rise to the top, with this pattern continuing until the 3-hour mark. At this point, both teams had completed 69 laps. In 3rd place and beyond were [#18 Quarerrosso ☆ Indies], [#921 PEPSIMAN + Kunii Design + Choku], and [#88 Plan B Racing Team × ARATA], all completing 68 laps, one lap behind the leaders.

Now, the top battle that was attracting attention, but [#130 Garage130R & Jr's] that showed an otherworldly speed that could be described as a runaway until the end ran 95 laps and finished with the checkered flag. The driving that covered the pit-in time handicap given to the BRAVE class with speed was truly a dominant strength. Also, [#69 Business Rally Art & with RS], which fought well until the middle, finished with 92 laps, three laps behind, and took second place overall. In third place, [#88 Plan B Racing Team × ARATA], which has been running steadily since the beginning, finished in the top three.