Suzuki World Endurance Champions
Kawasaki win the Bol d’Or 24 Hour battle but Suzuki win the 2015 Endurance World Championship war
Suzuki Endurance Racing Team has won the 2015 Endurance World Championship after a drama-packed Bol d’Or 24 Hour Race at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France.
SERT riders Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Etienne Masson brought the team’s GSX-R1000 home in third position behind race winners SRC Kawasaki and 2014 world champions GMT94 Yamaha, completing a total of 677 laps of the 5.8 km Le Castellet circuit on the scenic Var hillside near the Marseilles coastline.
Racing in commemorative blue and white 30th Anniversary GSX-R colours, and in celebration of 35 years of the French team, managed by Dominique Meliand from its Le Man’s-based headquarters, SERT has now claimed a total of 14 Endurance World Championship titles.
From the start on Saturday at 15:00hrs local time, the 74,000 Bol d-Or fans witnessed exciting racing, that was action-packed from lap one until lap 684: Suzuki’s defending Superstock World Cup Champions Junior Team LMS Suzuki took the lead half-way around the first lap as SERT positioned its GSX-R1000 in seventh, soon to move into second, as main series rivals GMT94 Yamaha crashed and was forced to push back to the pits for repairs; losing four laps in the process.
Junior Team LMS Suzuki – Baptise Guittet, Gregg Black and Romain Maitre – who have dominated the Superstock class this season, led the opening stages of the race from eventual winners SRC Kawasaki, SERT and Honda Racing Team, but suffered an overheating problem early Saturday evening, forcing them back to the pits; but after the problem was rectified, team rider Greg Black was unlucky to crash, forcing the Le Mans-based team out of the race. However, the team still recorded second position overall in the Superstock sub-series.
Going into the night after the Marseille Mistral wind had proved an issue for the teams – particularly on the flat-out 320kph straight – SERT led from SRC Kawasaki, Honda Racing, Monster YART (Yamaha), BMW Motorrad and GMT94 Yamaha; who climbed back-up from 54th position to sixth after its early incident.
But then things went wrong for SERT; just after collecting 10 bonus championship points for leading at the eight-hour mark, the SERT GSX-R1000 suffered and uncharacteristic issue with Philippe in the saddle – a rear wheel axle problem at 2am – which led to two unscheduled pit-stops that cost the team precious time. However, SERT rejoined the race and clicked-off consistent lap-times through the night into Sunday morning to climb-back into an eventual third position; and the top-step of the Endurance World Championship once again, to celebrate 30 years of the GSX-R Superbike and also 35 years of Dominique Meliand’s Suzuki Endurance Racing Team.
Dominique Meliand – SERT Team Manager – “They say the younger you are, the more hunger you have for victory, but I can assure you it’s exactly the same at my age! This 14th World Championship title tastes just as good as our first one. And for anyone who dismissed the GSX-R1000, this title proves it is still a winning machine! I’m very, very, happy. It has been a very good year for us; and to finish on the podium today and win the Endurance World Championship is great for Suzuki Motor Corporation and all of our sponsors!”
While SERT won the World Endurance Championship war it was Team Kawasaki SRC that savoured their fourth consecutive Bol d’Or victory.
Gregory Leblanc – Team Kawasaki SRC – “I did not want to think about a fourth Bol d’Or success during the race. We had no time to think anyway. Each time we took a small lead we had a small issue. This race was nervewracking!”.
Matthieu Lagrive – Team Kawasaki SRC – “After a difficult season we had with our two Suzuka and Oschersleben DNF results, we had to score a win this year but it hasn’t been easy”.
GMT94 Yamaha rode the catch up race of a lifetime to secure second place and end the 2015 FIM Endurance World Championship season as the Vice-Champion. Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) also showed an incredibly strong pace at Circuit Paul Ricard, but luck was not on their side and they were forced to retire after 14 hours.
GMT94 Yamaha’s David Checa, Kenny Foray and Mathieu Gines were still in contention for the championship title as they entered the round in Castellet (France), a circuit they hadn’t ridden the brand-new YZF-R1 on before, 23 points behind the championship leader, with 60 points still up for grabs.
Starting from third, Checa was the first GMT rider onboard the YZF-R1, styled in a special 60 Year Anniversary livery, towards the first corner along with 54 other riders. After some scrapping he had positioned himself in eleventh place, when suddenly drama struck just before the end of the first lap. The Spanish rider suffered a small crash and had to hurry back to the pit box.
The French team showed its professionalism when it quickly repaired the bike in a manner of minutes, so they could re-enter the track eleven minutes into the race in 54th place. It was second rider Foray who took over the bike and started chipping away at the five-lap disadvantage, before handing the bike over to third rider Gines who raised the pace even further.
It was the experience of the number 94 team and the never-ending fighting spirit of the riders that saw them pull through the hardship and become the heroes of the race as they fought against the odds.
By the eight-hour stage they had climbed back up to sixth place and secured five important points for the championship. They kept their heads down and rode a brilliant night session that saw them not only move up to fourth position, but also leave their main rival behind them as they added another seven points to their tally.
Their change in fortune allowed them to set a new goal for themselves. They were now setting their eyes on a podium finish and were determined to make it happen. Through some strong teamwork they worked their way up to a sensational second place, taking the chequered flag two laps behind the leader.
Broc Parkes, the first rider for the Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team, started from second place on the grid. He came out of the first corner in seventh place and did well as he made his way up to fourth. He continued to ride a strong stint before handing over the bike to second rider Max Neukirchner when the four front running bikes all headed into the pits at the same time.
Despite not being at a 100 per cent level fitness, Neukirchner and third rider Sheridan Morais carried a very strong and consistent pace, which the number 7 bike had displayed all season.
YART gave their all to get hold of the second place and had closed the gap from 45.141s to the race leaders down to 28.743s, but their efforts ended with a déjà vu. Despite their great pace they suffered a technical error during the night, similar to what happened at the 24-hour race of Le Mans, and were unable to finish the race.
The Bol d’Or results see GMT94 Yamaha take home 45 points and finish the season in second place with 132 points in total. Despite their not having completed the race, Monster Energy YART still secured 7 points for holding fourth place at the eight-hour stage, increasing the point total to 41 for tenth place in the championship.
David Checa – GMT94 Yamaha Team rider – “The beginning of the race was difficult and all we did was keep on pushing. In the end we came second, but it wasn’t enough, but even if we had won the race we would still have finished second in the championship. All the teams had problems, not just us, but that’s endurance. We just happened to have an issue at the kick off while others had it during the race. I crashed after I had a bad start and some riders were riding risky. I went too deep into the corner and touched the curbstone. We had a problem restarting the bike, and we had problems with the start at Le Mans, Suzuka and Oschersleben, so we have to find a solution for this, because else you end up in the middle group. Those riders want to show everybody how hard they can push and you can easily be in the wrong place at the wrong moment. Luckily we didn’t have any more troubles during the race and the team did a perfect job. I couldn’t undo the crash, but our result was still second place and also second in the championship, which is a very positive outcome. Of course we wanted to win, because that’s always our goal, but even without the crash that would have been difficult. Next week I have the final round of the French Superbike Championship, so I look forward to another strong weekend.”
Christophe Guyot – GMT94 Yamaha Team Manager – “Naturally I have mixed feelings about the race results. Of course we can be happy that we got second place and rode a very strong race, without any problems with the bike. At the beginning of the race we had a five-lap disadvantage to bike number eleven and we finished only two laps behind them. This shows that getting the victory was possible and that this race was a great showcase of the YZF-R1’s amazing potential. The bike was working incredibly well and I’m very happy about its performance. We are also happy for Yamaha to have secured the Constructor’s Title for a second time in a row. I want to say a big thank you to the riders for their efforts and also the team, who have been superb. We have given it our all today and can be proud of ourselves.”
Broc Parkes – Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) rider – “It’s unfortunate because I think we could have won. We caught up to the leader from nearly one minute to just a 28 second disadvantage. Every lap we were catching them, but then we had a problem at about five o’clock in the morning when I just did my sixth stint. The start was not too bad, but it wasn’t the best either. I basically just tried to keep a good pace and in general we had very good speed, especially during the nighttime when we were the fastest on track. I’m thankful to the team and I feel for them, because they did such a good job and us, the riders as well, we did everything right. It’s a shame, because we had the speed to win this year but we just had these problems that got in the way.”
Mandy Kainz – Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) Team Manager – “It was an abrupt and unfortunate ending to an otherwise good weekend. We were very competitive from the start of Bol d’Or, like we have been the entire season. We had a good start to the race and did a good job moving up the order. We closed in on the leader and were competing for victory, but it wasn’t to be: we suffered a technical issue early in the morning and couldn’t rejoin the race. I want to thank the team and the riders for their hard work and incredible dedication. We will work hard to come back even stronger next year.”
For the Honda Endurance Racing Team Bol d’Or was again a source of disappointment. After almost 20-hours racing and fighting in the top three, the Honda Endurance Racing team retired. Honda’s Julien Da Costa, Freddy Foray and Sébastien Gimbert worked relentlessly to get the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP at the front, and led for most of the race. Unfortunately, at 10:30 (local time), after completing 537-laps and almost 20-hours of racing, the Honda team announced their retirement from the Bol d’Or due to a machine failure. At the eight and 16-hour stages the team were second and first, which allowed them to score 18 championship points. Whilst running in second position Gimbert was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop. The Honda crew worked to isolate and fix the problem as quickly as possible, but 30-minutes later, the team was forced to retire. The Honda team will now go back to the UK workshop and analyse the data collected to work out what forced the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP out of the race, which is not the first retirement for Honda this season.
Neil Tuxworth – Honda – This is a very disappointing situation for the whole team, the riders, the mechanics and everyone that has made such a big effort and the fact that we were leading the race. Unfortunately we had to retire due to a failure of the machine, that’s all I can say for now.”
Steven Casaer – Honda – We don’t know yet what happened, for sure we had to stop which is a shame because we were in a really good position, we were leading until after the 16-hour, then we had an engine problem that we tried to fix, but we need to do more analysis to know what it was but for sure it was not possible to continue the race.”
Julien Da Costa – Honda – We are all disappointed, the endurance world is a team job, we win together, we lose together. It’s a shame that we did not finish the race because we were not the fastest team, but we were at the front for a long while which means that we had the right race strategy. I think it’s a shame for us all because there is a good atmosphere between the three riders and we’re a good team. We really hope that better luck will come for 2016.”
2015 Bol d’Or Race Results
- SRC Kawasaki 684 EWC KAWASAKI SRC Kawasaki
- GMT94 Yamaha 682 EWC YAMAHA GMT94 Yamaha
- Suzuki Endurance Racing Team 677 EWC SUZUKI Suzuki Endurance Racing Team
- Tati Team Beaujolais Racing 673 SST KAWASAKI Tati Team Beaujolais Racing
- Team Traqueur Louit Moto 33 672 SST KAWASAKI Team Traqueur Louit Moto 33
- BMW MOTORRAD France TEAM PENZ13 669 EWC BMW BMW MOTORRAD France TEAM PENZ13
- Völpker – NRT 48 by Schubert Motors 668 SST BMW Völpker – NRT 48 by Schubert Motors
- TEAM 3ART YAM’AVENUE 664 SST YAMAHA TEAM 3ART YAM’AVENUE
- ATOMIC 68 662 SST SUZUKI ATOMIC 68
- Team April Moto/Motors Events 660 EWC SUZUKI Team April Moto/Motors Events
- Flembbo Leader team 660 EWC KAWASAKI Flembbo Leader team
- AM Moto Racing Competition 655 SST SUZUKI AM Moto Racing Competition
- Ecurie Chrono Sport 1 654 SST KAWASAKI Ecurie Chrono Sport 1
- Maco Racing Team 647 EWC YAMAHA Maco Racing Team
- Tecmas Endurance 640 TECMAS END BMW Tecmas Endurance
Final Ranking – EWC World Championship
- Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, Suzuki GSXR 1000, 154 points
- GMT94 Yamaha, Yamaha YZF-R1, 132 points
- Team SRC Kawasaki, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 100 points
- BMW Motorrad France Team PENZ13, BWM S 1000RR, 71 points
- Team Traqueur Louit MOTO 33, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 68 points
- Team Bolliger Switzerland, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 55 points
- Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki, Suzuki GSXR 1000, 54 points
- Tati Team Beaujolais Racing, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 53 points
- Honda Endurance Racing, CBR1000 RRSP, 50 points
- Monster Energy Yamaha YART, Yamaha YZF-R1, 41 points
Final Ranking – SST World Cup
- Team Traqueur Louit MOTO 33, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 68 points
- Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki, Suzuki GSXR 1000, 54 points
- Tati Team Beaujolais Racing, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 53 points
- AM Moto Racing Competition, Suzuki GSX R, 31 points
- Völpker NRT 48 & PENZ13 By Schubert Motors, BWM S 1000RR, 25 points
- Starteam Pam-Racing, Suzuki GSXR R, 23 points
- Team 3ART YAM’ Avenue, SST, Yamaha YZF-R1, 18 points
- ATOMIC 68, Suzuki GSX R, 22 laps 13 points
- BMRT 3D Endurance, Aprillia 10 points
- Ecurie Chrono Sport 1, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 10 points
