Kawasaki France Win Albacete 6 Hour Race SERT Suzuki Second, Folch Yamaha Third Team Amadeus X One Yamaha finish 11th and in the points The Albacete 6 Hour race has been won by Kawasaki Motors France bike of Mazuecos and Plater, with SERT Suzuki second, Yamaha Folch third and the QERT Kawasaki fourth. The Kawasaki France bike established an early lead that was never challenged despite the SERT Suzuki’s best efforts. Kawasaki Bolliger’s night racing experience won through to lift them to fifth place ahead of the Suzuka 8 Hour winning FCC TSR Honda team from Japan, who had fought back from a poor start to hold fifth place for much of the daylight portion of the race. Team Amadeus X One finished the race in eleventh place (and third in class) after running in the top ten briefly and never dropping below fourteenth place. The improvements they made to the bike after Le Mans paid off and they ran a consistent and controlled race. American Will Gruy was pleased with the result, especially after a disappointing race in France two weeks ago: “We qualified twelfth and finished eleventh, so that’s pretty fair. At Albacete there’s a lot less bikes on the track compared to Le Mans, so it makes it a lot easier to ride. And it’s a lot easier because there’s not so much pressure; it’s not the 24 hours of Le Mans, so you just go out and ride. We had a different strategy and everything worked really well.” Provisional Result Pos’n, No., Riders, Team, Class, Bike, Gap 1st 11: Plater-Giabbani-Mazuecos – Kawasaki Motor France – SBK – Kawasaki ZX10 2nd 1: Phillipe-Lagrive-Costa – Suzuki Endurance – SBK- Suzuki GSX-R1000 – 2 Laps 3rd 42: Tomas-Casas-Fouloi – Yamaha Folch Endurance -SBK – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 4 Laps 4th 95: Cardoso-Silva – QERT Kawasaki – SBK – KawasakiZX10R – 6 Laps 5th 8: Morillon-Muff-Saiger – Bolliger Switzerland -SBK – Kawasaki ZX10R – 6 Laps 6th 778: Tsujimura-Sugai – FCC TSR – SBK – HondaCBR1000RR – 7 Laps 7th 38: Nigon-Millet-Contente – Endurance Moto 38- SPP- Yamaha Yzf-R1 – 8 Laps 8th 18: Molinier-Pialoux-Briere – Sapeurs Pompiers -SPP – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – 9 Laps 9th 7: Jerman-Scarnato-Cudlin – Yamaha Austria – SBK -Yamaha YZF-R1 – 10 Laps 10th 12: Andersson-Notman-Carlberg – Suzuki Sweden -SBK – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – 12 Laps 11th 9: Tessari-Gruy-Ricci – Amadeus X-One – SPP -Yamaha YZF-R1 – 12 Laps More, from a press release issued by the FIM: Albacete 6hr Night-time Endurance Kawasaki France Takes Victory Ahead of Suzuki SERT A relentless six-hour battle took place in today’s race, the second stage of the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship at Albacete in Spain, which was fought out head to head by Kawasaki Motor France and the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team without a single moment of respite. At the chequered flag the Kawasaki machine of Steve Plater, Julian Mazuecos and Gwen Giabbani ended winning with one lap ahead of the Suzuki ridden by Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa. The 2006 World Championship-winning Suzuki lost the battle beaten by of Kawasaki Motor France which proved to be a serious challenger for the 2007 championship. Julien Mazuecos made the best lap of the race with 1’32.541, a new track record for the Endurance World Championship. Kawasaki Motor France now stands just one point behind the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team in the overall Championship classification. As in the past two seasons, the Spanish Folch Endurance team scored a podium position with its Yamaha. It finished ahead of the Kawasaki Qatar Endurance Racing Team of Jose Luis Cardoso and Ivan Silva. After an impressive performance during testing, their ZX10R had started from second place on the grid. Another Kawasaki, that of Bolliger Switzerland, took a superb fifth place at the hands of David Morillon, Patric Muff and Horst Saiger. The Japanese FCC TSR team raced its Honda to sixth place and seemed pleased with its first Endurance race performance outside Japan. It was a satisfactory performance also for the Endurance Moto 38 team. The French Yamaha team finished seventh, and first in the Superproduction just ahead of the Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers. Yamaha Austria achieved an almost unexpected ninth place. The YART had started the race from bottom position after an incident with the Yamaha Phase One which finished in only eighteenth place. Suzuki Sweden, Amadeus X-One (Yamaha), Raffin Motos (Kawasaki), Genous Team (Suzuki) and Diablo 666 Bolliger (Kawasaki) gained their first points. The Team LTG 57 finished fourteenth and first in the Superstock class. More, from a press release issued by Suzuki Racing: World Endurance Champions Suzuki Endurance Racing Team has taken the lead in the 2007 series after taking second place at the Albacete 6 Hours second round in Spain. SERT team riders Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa completed 226 laps of the Spanish circuit, one behind winners Kawasaki Moto France, aboard their GSX-R1000 to head the series by one point – 48 to 47 -with four rounds remaining. Philippe led from the start but was passed by Kawasaki France’s Julian Mazuecos half-way into the opening hour. The top-two positions remained the same throughout the race although fast-starting Qert Qatar Kawasaki were overtaken by eventual third-placed Folch Yamaha going into the second half of the event. As night fell, Mazuecos, Steve Plater and Gwen Giabbani turned on the pressure, opening up a lead that saw them clinch victory. Third place went to Yamaha Folch on 224 laps, two ahead of Qert Qatar Kawasaki. Provisional Results: 1 Kawasaki Motor France (Kawasaki) 227 laps, 2 SERT Suzuki (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 226, 3 Yamaha Folch (Yamaha) 224, 4 Qert Qatar Kawasaki (Kawasaki) 222, 5 Bolliger Team Switzerland (Kawasaki) 222, 6 FCC TSR (Honda) 221, 7 End Moto 38 (Yamaha) 220, 8 T18 Sapeurs Pompiers (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 219, 9 Yamaha Austria Racing (Yamaha) 218, 10 Suzuki Sweden (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 216.