Penz13.com to field two bikes at the finals at Le Mans
Böhlen/Le Mans. The final race of the FIM World Endurance Championship will take place this upcoming weekend with the legendary 24 hours race at the Circuit Bugatti at Le Mans. The Penz13.com Racing Team is going to field two bikes there and has two very different approaches: Whilst the Superstock bike of the Penz13.com Franks Autowelt Racing Team is only nine points adrift of the leading team in the World Cup title, the Open-spec BMW S 1000 RR is going to do a real time test of “rock-around-the-clock” for next years 2015 EWC season.
#13: Penz13.com Franks Autowelt Racing Team / Superstock: Home victory grew strength for title race
At Rico Penzkofer’s squad’s home race history was in the making: At the etropolis Motorsport Arena Oschersleben for the first time ever a Superstock bike earned the Pole Position in a Endurance World Championship race. Markus Reiterberger (GER), Bastien Mackels (BEL) and Pedro Vallcaneras (ESP) also took fourth overall in the 8 hours of Germany, winning the Superstock class as twelve months before.
Reiterberger and Mackels will miss at Le Mans due to a clash with the finals of the German Championship. Vallcaneras’ new team mates will be: Endurance-proven Didier van Keymeulen from Belgium and British rider Steve Mercer will return to his Penz13.com squad. Mercer already was battling for the Endurance Superstock title with the Saxonian team in 2013 and took a team’s and rider’s best Isle of Man race in taking 8th in last year’s Superstock TT.
The final 24 hours of the year at Le Mans are a high game for the team as there are still 60 points to grab on course. The Penz13.com Franks Autowelt Racing Team has collected 73 points so far and is only 9 shy behind the leaders of the Junior Team LMS Suzuki. Theoretically there are still nine teams in the game to grab the crown. The race will be over a full day’s distance, starting Saturday, 20th of September 2014 at 15:00 o’clock and finishing Sunday, 21st of September 2014 at 15:00 o’clock. There is no second of rest to be anticipated.
The Penz13.com team already took the FIM World Endurance Superstock Cup in 2012 and with it has one world championship title under the belt.
#31: Penz13.com Racing Team / Open: Setting the course for the future
Le Mans will see the Penz13.com Racing Team taking part in the Open-class with a brand new team. Of course, the bike to rely on will once more be the BMW S 1000 RR and the race is seen as a real time test. The motorbikes will be on EWC-spec standard (Superbike class, wheel quick-change etc.) as the team is looking at a possible step up to the “big” class in 2015.
The Open bike at the 2014 finals will be ridden by a bunch of experienced riders. Jason Pridmore from the USA will lead the squad into the race. He is part of the Penz team since Le Mans 2012 and helped to lift the Superstock title back then. Last year he won the 8 hours of Germany on the same bike with this squad.
With Sylvain Barrier there is some eni FIM Superbike World Championship glory to be added to the ranks. The Frenchman is riding the WSBK-EVO-class for BMW Motorrad Italia and is holding on to fourth of the overall standings of this sub-category. Barrier could have done much better but had to miss a total of 12 races due to injury and only worked his way up to fourth in taking part in four events with eight races.
Glenn Allerton is adding further international flair to the team. The Australian rider won his national Superbike championships in 2008 and 2011 in Down-Under and was replacing Barrier at the season kick-off of the eni FIM World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island back in February this year.
Rico Penzkofer, Team Principle:
“Le Mans will be a big task for all of us as we are fielding two BMW S 1000 RR teams there. This is not a new situation to most of us as we were having two squads in the same race already in the early days of our team and I have the believe we can glue everything together once more. This time of course the aims and targets will be completely different than back in those days.”
“Concerning the Superstock category we’ve got the clear vision to try to fight and win the title once more. We got that one in 2012 already, 2011 we finished runner-up, last year we’ve been third. Our rivals and the distance of 24 hours are hard and everything can happen, but our squad is highly motivated and we hope to have a bit of luck on our side as this is a big part of racing – always!”
“The Open-squad more or less is testing under real racing conditions for 2015. We’ve been thinking about to step up to the EWC category for quite a while and this will be our first attempt – but not only a attempt. Our highest priority has to be to finish the race so we can collect as many data as possible for the upcoming season. Looking at our strong rider’s line-up we of course do also hope to be involved in the sharp end of the race.”
“The last weeks of preparations have been hard and we had to work relentless. My special ‘Thank you’ goes out to our Crewchief Gordon Unger who had to prepare four instead of two bikes this time. He worked late almost every night. I also want to say ‘Thank you’ to everyone else of our squad, because without the help of everyone we would not be in this situation right now. Another ‘Thank you’ goes out to BMW Motorrad Motorsport for their first-class support, and to all our sponsors. We are ready to fight and looking forward to Le Mans!”