The Yamaha GMT 94 of David Checa, Sébastien Gimbert and Olivier Four won the race by seven laps ahead of the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team 1, and ten laps ahead of the Suzuki SERT 2 in an incredibly tight race. This is the first race victory for the GMT 94, who were World Endurance Champions in 2004 in this event. Despite the Suzuki 1 missing out on race victory, the SERT team has won the QMMF Endurance World Championship 2007. With the Kawasaki no.11, second in the World Championship classification, not finishing the race, the Suzuki no. 1 has an advantage of 60 points enabling them to claim the World title before the last event, the Doha 8 Hours in Qatar in November. Yamaha Phase One Endurance finished in fourth, their best result so far of what has been a very difficult season for the English team. Phase One has moved up in the overall standings to sixth position. Yamaha Acropolis Moto Expert completed the top five Bol d’Or finishers just ahead of Honda National Motos. However the positions looked to be very different just minutes before the finish. At 14:30 hours, the then fifth-placed Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland were forced to retire after a spectacular crash from Horst Saiger at the exit of the stands. This 71st Bol d’Or proved to be one of surprises right up until the final moments, with none of the main contenders escaping the 24-hour race without some kind of incident. The race leaders changed places several times in the first two hours from the start. The two official Suzuki teams and the Yamaha GMT 94 shared the lead at various times until Olivier Four crashed on his GMT 94 around 17:00 hours. Then the Kawasaki France 11, which had been delayed by a stop-and-go penalty at the start of the race, dropped to the back of the race having run out of fuel. The race continued to be full of incidents. At 19:30 hours, Julien Da Costa collided with another rider and crashed his Suzuki no.1 at the head of the race. The Suzuki 1 rejoined the official Kawasaki back in 30th place, thirteen laps behind the Suzuki 2 which was in the lead ahead of the Yamaha GMT 94, to rapidly gain places after the crash. The night proved fatal for the two official Kawasakis. Relatively lucky at the start of the race, the Kawasaki Maccio 111 was third behind the Suzuki 2 and the Yamaha GMT 94 at just after the 23-hour stage. The Kawasaki machine had moved back into ninth place and was ten laps behind the lead Suzuki when Jehan d’Orgeix fell. But despite launching a valiant effort to get back up front, the Kawasaki 11 and 111 were forced to retire with mechanical problems the 11 with a broken rod, and the 111 with a broken gear box. In the early hours of this morning, the lead was being fought between the Suzuki 2 and the Yamaha GMT 94. At 09:00 hours, the Yamaha 94 finally managed to move ahead after the long and entertaining duel with the Suzuki 2. Guillaume Dietrich’s crash on the Suzuki 2 moved the team four to five laps behind the leading Yamaha 94. Shortly after midday the Suzuki 2 had climbed back to third place ahead of the Yamaha Phase One Endurance. Moto Endurance 38 finished seventh and first Superproduction, just in front of the Junior Team Suzuki LMS in eighth, and first Superstock. Among the permanent teams who finished in the points were Endurance Moto 45, eleventh overall and second Superstock, and RT Racing Team and Moto Virus who finished fifteenth. The other permanent teams were less fortunate. Yamaha Austria Racing Team, who at 19:00 hours were third behind the two Suzukis, had to pull out due to a broken engine. The Honda RMT 21, which was in an impressive tenth place, was forced to retire with clutch problems. The Honda FCC TSR Eurosport Benelux dropped out with brake problems. Yamaha Zone Rouge Belgique pulled out of the race at 18:00 hours yesterday after two crashes and a broken cylinder head gasket. Kawasaki Diablo Bolliger was let down by problems with its gear box. Maco Moto Racing Team also dropped out with mechanical problems. A broken engine also forced the Kawasaki Qatar Endurance Racing Team to retire in the early hours of this morning, and Raffin Motos just after midday. The next and final round of the QMMF Endurance World Championship, the Doha 8 Hours will take place on 10th November in Qatar. More, from a press release issued by Amadeus X One: Yamaha GMT94 Win Incident Packed Bol d’Or Amadeus X One 8th in Class, 20th Overall The 71st Bol d’Or 24 Hour race has been won by Yamaha GMT94, with SERT Suzuki No.1 second and SERT Suzuki No.2 third. The race has been one of the toughest and most incident packed for some years, with only half of the 57 starters making it to the finish. Team Amadeus X One crossed the line in 20th place overall after riders Paolo Tessari, Riccardo Ricci and Will Gruy ran at a consistent pace for the duration of the race, managing to stay out of trouble and avoid the worst of the dramas that affected many other teams. The team finished eighth in the SuperProduction class and were the second SuperProduction Yamaha to cross the line. The final round of the world endurance championship is the Doha 8 Hour race in Qatar on the 10th of November. Top Ten Finishers 1st 94: YAMAHA GMT94 – SBK – Checa, Gimbert, Four, YAMAHA R1 – 801 laps 2nd 1: SUZUKI ENDURANCE RACING TEAM – SBK – Philippe, Lagrive, Da Costa, Suzuki GSX-R1000 794 laps 3rd 2: SUZUKI ENDURANCE RACING TEAM – SBK – Costes, Dietrich, Neukirchner, Suzuki GSX-R1000 – 791 lap 4th 3: PHASE ONE ENDURANCE – SBK – Nowland, Richards, Vallcaneras, Yamaha R1 789 laps 5th 99: ACROPOLIS MOTO EXPERT – SBK – Fremy, Fastre, Leblanc, Yamaha R1 782 laps 6th 55: NATIONAL MOTOS – SBK – Protat, Ribalta, Bouan, Honda CBR1000RR – 779 laps 7th 38: ENDURANCE MOTO 38 – SPP – Yamaha Millet, Brivet, Auger, Yamaha R1 – 772 laps 8th 72: JUNIOR TEAM SUZUKI LMS – STK – Foray, Jonchiere, Delhalle, Suzuki GSX-R1000 – 771 laps 9th 18: IGOL TEAM 18 SAPEURS POMPIERS – SPP – Molinier, Pialoux, Briere, Suzuki GSX-R1000 – 769 laps 10th 110: IGOL AM MOTO RACING – SPP – Hernandez, Guersillon, Ulmann, Suzuki GSX-R1000 768 laps More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office: Suzuki has won the 2007 World Endurance Championship after finishing second at the Bol d’Or 24 Hour race at Magny Cours in France. Defending Champions Suzuki Endurance Racing Team – Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien da Costa – recovered from a crash five hours into the penultimate and fifth round, which put them down in 40th position, to fight back into second place behind race winners Yamaha GMT 94 as the GSX-R1000 riders’ closest championship rivals Kawasaki France retired during the night. SERT’s second team of William Costes, Guillame Dietrich, Max Neukirchner and Stephane Duterne – winners of the opening round at Le Mans in April – raced to third position after recovering from a crash during the final quarter of the race. The World Champions led from the start from SERT 2 until just before the five-hour mark when da Costa crashed. SERT 2 led throughout the night and battled with Yamaha GMT 94 on the same lap and just 2.4 seconds adrift. The Yamaha team took the lead when Suzuki pitted and then crashed shortly afterwards. By this time the GSX-R1000 of Philippe, Lagrive and da Costa was back into a championship-winning position of second, where they remained until the flag at 1500 hrs local time. Provisional Results: 1 Yamaha GMT 94 (Yamaha) 801 laps, 2 SERT 1 (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 794, 3 SERT 2 (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 791, 4 Phase One Endurance (Yamaha) 789, 5 Acropolis Moto Expert (Yamaha) 782, 6 National Motos (Honda) 779, 7 Endurance Moto 38 Yamaha (Yamaha) 772, 8 Junior Team Suzuki LMS (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 771, 9 Igol Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 769, 10 Igol AM Moto Racing Competition (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 768. More, from a press release issued by Steve Plater’s publicist: STEVE PLATER FORCED TO RETIRE FROM BOL d’OR Steve Plater and Kawasaki France’s chance of winning the World Endurance title hinged on a good result from the Bol d’Or 24-hour race at Magny Cours over the weekend but their challenge seemed doomed from the start when the team were forced to enter the pits for a stop go penalty inflicted for inadvertently being late for one of the briefings earlier in the week. This dropped them down the order somewhat and their chances suffered another blow when the bike ran out of fuel, losing precious time. Finally, in the middle of the night the bike suffered a mechanical failure and that was the end of the race for Steve and the team. Qualifying had gone well for Kawasaki France whose riders, Steve Plater, Gwen Giabbani and Julien Mazuecos posted some fast times to qualify as second fastest team just two tenths of a second away from the championship leaders SERT who started in pole position. Mazuecos started the race and slotted into second place but soon dropped of the pace with a tyre issue and when Plater took over the reins after the first hour he was down to seventh place. But Steve, from Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire immediately rectified this and by the 100th lap marker was holding third position. Then disaster struck when Mazuecos ran out of fuel on his slow down lap and had to push the bike back to the pits. This dropped the team down to the back of the field over 10 laps down on the leaders. As the race wore on into the night the team began to pull back up the order and by 4am they were circulating well within the top ten. But just before 5am with Steve Plater at the controls, disaster struck and a mechanical failure put paid to any further action. With no points scored, Plater saw his championship aspirations fly out of the window as the SERT team rode through to finish the race in second place to claim 28 points, sufficient to secure the 2007 World Endurance championship title before the last event, the Doha eight hour race in Qatar on November 10. Plater returns to domestic action with AIM Yamaha to contest the penultimate round of the 2007 Bennetts British Superbike championship this weekend. Two free practise sessions take place on Friday with a third 50-minute session on Saturday morning prior to qualifying at 2.30pm. Racing is set for Sunday with the first of two 20-lap British Superbike races on track at 12.45pm, the second race due to start at 16.23pm. The ITV4 live broadcast window is from 12.30pm 5.10pm with further coverage from Sky Sports 3 from 7.30pm 11pm. More, from a press release issuFrench-run Team Yamaha GMT94 took the chequered flag in the famous but also grueling Bol D’Or 24hrs Endurance race this weekend, completing 801 laps on their YZF-R1 machine and beating second place by five laps. The race took place at the circuit of Magny-Cours (France) in front of almost 100,000 spectators; it started at 15.00 hrs on Saturday and ran through the night to finish at 15.00 hrs on Sunday afternoon. The three riders were Sébastien Gimbert, David Checa, who both also ride for Team Yamaha GMT94 in World Supersport, and Olivier Four. From the start Team Yamaha GMT94 were in the thick of the action but held their nerve to take the lead with a tight margin of 30 seconds back to second place. But, with only four hours to go the second placed Suzuki team crashed out, giving Team Yamaha GMT94 a ten lap lead. Keen to avoid anything that could lose them the lead, the team maintained their focus to take the win. This win is made all the sweeter as this is their first win at the Magny-Cours race. Permanent World Endurance Championship entry Yamaha Phase One Endurance team finished fourth (with riders Warwich Nowland, Glen Richards and Pedro Valcaneras Flores) with Yamaha teams Acrapolis Moto Expert fifth and Endurance Moto 38 finishing seventh. Currently 4 Yamaha teams are in the top 7 of the Endurance World Championship standings. Team Yamaha GMT94, run by former rider and passionate sportsman Christophe Guyot, operate on a strategy focused on two different race programs. They are permanent entries in the World Supersport Championship with riders David Checa and Sébastien Gimbert mounted on Yamaha R6 machinery. In addition, they enter the two most demanding Endurance races in the world on the Yamaha R1, both run in France – the Le Mans 24hrs and the Bol d’Or 24hrs. David Checa (Team Yamaha GMT94) This race has been excellent; the bike and the tyres worked perfectly together and the team has just worked as one to get on the top of the podium. The last four hours were the easiest, after the Suzuki team crashed; it was just about keeping the pace up and not making any silly mistakes. I’d like to thank Yamaha and Team GMT94 for all their support and efforts.” Sébastien Gimbert (Team Yamaha GMT94) “What can I say? To win feels very satisfying! Everything came together well and the race was perfect for us.” Olivier Four (Team Yamaha GMT94) “The bike was set-up well and Sébastien, David and I all worked well together. It feels great to win here! I’d like to thank the team for getting us here.” Christophe Guyot (Team Manager, Team Yamaha GMT94) “I’d like to thank everyone for all their hard work. I’m so happy with the result; it’s just fantastic to win here this weekend! It was a big fight from the beginning of the race and, although we got the lap record we were only leading by 30 seconds at 10.30am on Sunday morning. Then, the Suzuki which was in second place crashed, meaning we were in the lead by ten laps. From then on it was down to the riders to just ride carefully and not risk any crashes. This result is a great proof of the power and reliability of the Yamaha R1.” ed by Yamaha Racing: