Atsushi Watanabe's 2004 All-Japan JSB1000-spec Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. Revised JSB1000 rules for 2004 permitted unrestricted velocity stacks and cam profiles. The bike used a titanium Tri-Oval muffler and, for the first time that year, a 4-2-1 exhaust layout. It ran 16.5-inch tires front and rear. Photo courtesy of Yoshimura Archives.
2001-2004: The GSX-R1000 Arrives
In 1999 and 2000, Yoshimura contested the All-Japan Road Race Championship and Suzuka 8 Hours not with a four-cylinder 750cc Superbike, but with the X-1R, a GSX1300R Hayabusa-based X-Formula racer. The project drew a far greater response from fans than anyone had anticipated. Yoshimura continued in X-Formula for 2001, this time with the newly released GSX-R1000. The machine announced the arrival of the four-cylinder 1,000cc era and had been developed as a racing platform with an eye toward the 2003 rule changes in the Superbike World Championship and AMA Superbike. Those changes would raise the four-cylinder limit from 750cc to 1,000cc, matching the existing limit for twins.
Mat Mladin's 2004 AMA Superbike Championship-winning Suzuki GSX-R1000. Yoshimura R&D of America generally started with Suzuki's factory machine and developed the engine and other components to its own specification, an approach that differed from Yoshimura Japan's. As a result, even the two Superbike-spec GSX-R1000s differed in many details. Both used Showa forks, but the US machine's measured 47mm compared with the Japanese bike's 45mm. The US bike also carried a Yoshimura R&D RS-3 titanium exhaust. Photo courtesy of Tomoya Ishibashi.
Yoshimura chose X-Formula because it imposed no modification limits. In 2001, NK1 and X-Formula machines again earned championship points within the S-NK class while racing alongside Superbikes. Osamu Deguchi finished 3rd in the All-Japan S-NK standings. For the Suzuka 8 Hours, Yoshimura entered Deguchi, Shawn Giles, and Hiroaki Kawase. They started 12th but crashed out after only two laps.
The Yoshimura Tornado S-1 produced more than 170ps (125kW) at 12,000rpm and over 11kgf-m (107.9N-m) of torque at 10,000rpm. Output exceeded the stock GSX-R1000 by more than 10ps, while dry weight fell by 10kg from the standard machine's 170kg. The figures may not appear dramatically different, but its exceptional overall balance transformed the motorcycle into the ultimate road-going racer. Photo courtesy of Yoshimura Archives.
In January 2002, Yoshimura launched the TORNADO S-1, a complete street motorcycle based on the GSX-R1000 and tuned to closely resemble the X-Formula racer. Its fairing was designed specifically for the S-1 and its S-1R racing counterpart. Yoshimura's previous complete motorcycles were the 1987 TORNADO 1200 Bonneville, based on the oil-cooled GSX-R1100 and limited to three; the 2000 HAYABUSA X-1, based on the GSX1300R Hayabusa and limited to 100 at 2.56 million yen; and the 2001 KATANA 1135R, limited to five at 3.58 million yen. The S-1, limited to 50 at 3.78 million yen, was the fourth. The series continued with the M450R in 2003, with 13 built to order at prices from 1.198 million to 1.988 million yen, and the TORNADO III ZERO-50 in 2004, limited to five at 8 million yen.
In 2002, the All-Japan Championship's premier field gained a PT (Prototype) category, allowing MotoGP machines such as the Suzuki GSV-R and Kawasaki ZX-RR to race alongside SB and S-NK entries. The prototypes were ineligible for championship points. For example, if PT machines finished 1st and 2nd overall and a Superbike finished 3rd, the Superbike rider received the All-Japan points awarded for 1st place.
The Yoshimura TORNADO S-1R prepared for the 2002 Suzuka 8 Hours PT class. After testing several exhaust systems, including the Tri-Oval, the team chose the short Tri-Cone because the riders preferred its feel. Photo courtesy of Yoshimura Archives.
Yoshimura brought back Tamaki Serizawa, who had ridden for the team from 1995 through 1997, for the 2002 All-Japan Championship. His overall finishes were 4th, 7th, 8th, 7th, 5th, 4th, 5th, a retirement, and 4th. Against MotoGP prototypes and full-factory Superbikes, Yoshimura performed strongly as an independent constructor. Suzuki factory rider Atsushi Watanabe on a GSX-R750 won the SB title, while Tatsuya Yamaguchi won the combined JSB1000/S-NK title on a Honda CBR954RR in the JSB1000 class. At the Suzuka 8 Hours, Yoshimura entered Serizawa / Shinya Takeishi in PT. They started 9th and retired after 146 laps.
For 2003, JSB1000 became the main All-Japan category, allowing four-cylinder machines from 600-1,000cc, triples from 750-1,000cc, and twins from 850-1,200cc. S-NK and the previous SB category, both discontinued after 2002, raced alongside it during the transition. JSB1000, short for Japan Superbike, largely matched the new international Superbike regulations used by series such as WorldSBK and AMA Superbike. Yoshimura entered the All-Japan Championship in JSB1000 with the GSX-R1000 K3 and named defending SB champion Atsushi Watanabe its regular rider.
Watanabe finished 2nd in the overall JSB1000 standings. The champion was former Suzuki factory senior teammate Keiichi Kitagawa, riding a Kenz JTrust Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Yoshimura entered Watanabe / Yukio Kagayama in the JSB1000 class at the 2003 Suzuka 8 Hours. On Lap 2, however, oil on the track triggered a multi-bike crash at Turn 1. Their machine was caught in the incident and officially retired after completing one lap.
Mat Mladin on the GSX-R750 that carried him to his first Daytona 200 victory in 2000. It was Yoshimura Suzuki's first win in the race for 12 years, since Kevin Schwantz's 1988 victory. The Australian had competed in the 500cc Grand Prix class on a Cagiva in 1993 before joining Yoshimura Suzuki for the 1996 AMA Superbike season and finishing 4th. He placed 3rd with Fast By Ferracci Ducati in 1997, then returned to Yoshimura Suzuki and again finished 3rd in 1998. From 1999 until his retirement, Mladin won a record seven AMA Superbike titles with Yoshimura Suzuki: 1999-2001, 2003-2005, and 2009. Photo courtesy of Tomoya Ishibashi.
Meanwhile, the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 continued to excel in AMA competition. Mat Mladin won the 1999 Superbike title, the first for Yoshimura and Suzuki since Jamie James in 1989. Tom Kipp also won the 750 Supersport championship that year.
In 2000, Mladin rode the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 to his first Daytona 200 victory, defeating Nicky Hayden on an American Honda RC51 by just 0.011 seconds. Mladin also secured his second consecutive AMA Superbike title. In 750 Supersport, 17-year-old John Hopkins won the championship on a Valvoline EMGO Suzuki GSX-R750W/Y.
The fuel-injected GSX-R750 dominated AMA road racing in 2001. Mladin won his second consecutive Daytona 200 and his third straight AMA Superbike title with Yoshimura Suzuki. Jimmy Moore of Corona Extra / EBSCO Suzuki took the 750 Supersport championship, while Hopkins won Formula Xtreme. Hopkins later joined Suzuki's factory racing team and competed in MotoGP.
In 2002, Aaron Yates finished 5th in the AMA Superbike standings and Mladin 7th. Moore won the 750 Supersport title, Yates the 600 Supersport championship on a GSX-R600, and Jason Pridmore the Formula Xtreme title on a GSX-R1000.
Ben Spies made his AMA professional debut with the satellite Valvoline EMGO Suzuki team in 2000 and joined Yoshimura Suzuki in 2003. His distinctive elbows-out riding position attracted attention from the beginning and later earned him the nickname "Elbows." He competed full-time in MotoGP from 2010 through 2013. Photo courtesy of Tomoya Ishibashi.
In 2003, AMA Superbike began admitting four-cylinder 1,000cc machines, bringing the Superbike-spec GSX-R1000 to the grid. Yoshimura Suzuki dominated the series: Mladin earned his fourth title and first in two years, Yates finished 2nd, and Ben Spies placed 4th. Spies also won the Formula Xtreme championship on a GSX-R1000, while Josh Hayes took the Superstock title, in the category that replaced 750 Supersport, on a GSX-R750.
In the 2004 All-Japan Championship, Watanabe finished 7th in JSB1000 on a GSX-R1000. At the Suzuka 8 Hours, Watanabe / Kagayama started 4th on an FIM Superbike-spec GSX-R1000. Despite a turbulent race that included crashes and safety-car periods, they finished an impressive 2nd. It was Yoshimura's first Suzuka 8 Hours podium in 16 years, since Kevin Schwantz / Doug Polen finished 2nd in 1988.
As the sun sets during the 2004 Suzuka 8 Hours, Yukio Kagayama charges through the chicane toward the checkered flag. Yoshimura returned to the podium in 2nd place for the first time in 16 years and was greeted by a storm of cheers. Yoshimura was once again a leading player at the Suzuka 8 Hours. Photo courtesy of Yoshimura Archives.
Meanwhile, in the 2004 AMA Superbike Championship, Mladin won the Daytona 200 and claimed the series title.
In 2004, Yoshimura celebrated its 50th anniversary. "I've Got the Power!" The company's passionate history of four-stroke tuning began in 1954, when Pop Yoshimura borrowed a corner of his older brother's metalworking shop in Zasshonokuma, Fukuoka, and opened the small Yoshimura Motors. From that beginning, Yoshimura grew into one of the world's leading tuning companies, with operations in Japan and the United States. Today, parts are precision-machined by CNC and camshafts are designed by computer, but Yoshimura has never forgotten its early methods: packing pipes with sand, heating and bending them by hand to make exhaust systems, or holding valves in a drill press and polishing them by hand. Each task represents the origins of tuning and the belief that passion has the power to go beyond established theory.
Mat Mladin in 2004. From the GSX-R1000's debut in 2003 until his retirement at the end of 2009, Mladin and his younger Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Ben Spies dominated AMA Superbike. Photo courtesy of Yoshimura Archives.
EPILOGUE
The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 continued its AMA Superbike success. Mladin added championships in 2005 and 2009, bringing his career total to a record seven. Spies won three consecutive titles from 2006 through 2008, adding the 1,000cc Superstock crown for a double championship in 2007. Toni Elías won another AMA Superbike title for the GSX-R1000 in 2017.
Yoshimura won the Suzuka 8 Hours in 2007 with Yukio Kagayama / Kosuke Akiyoshi and again in 2009 with Daisaku Sakai / Kazuki Tokudome / Nobuatsu Aoki. The 2007 victory was Yoshimura's fourth and its first in 27 years, since 1980.
Yoshimura had supplied engines and other components to SERT, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, in the FIM Endurance World Championship since 1980. After the operation became the Yoshimura-led Yoshimura SERT team, with Yoshimura building Suzuki's complete factory machines, it won the world championship in 2020 and 2024.
THE LEGEND CONTINUES...
Stories and photos supplied by Yoshimura Japan / Tomoya Ishibashi
Written by Tomoya Ishibashi
Edited by Bike Bros Magazines
Published on April 17, 2026