Le Mans 24 Hours First test, Thursday at the Bugatti circuit Teams are making their final preparations for this weekend’s Le Mans 24hr, the first of six races that make up the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship 2007. The first official test starts on Thursday at the Bugatti circuit, Le Mans. The results and the falls from last weekend’s tests gave indications on some of the riders’ form. The first upset came from Suzuki when Matthieu Lagrive, GSX-R no 1 rider and 2006 World Champion, had a fall during the Supersport World Championship warm-up in Valencia, Spain, resulting in a broken bone in his arm. Matthieu is still expecting to start at the 24hrs alongside Vincent Philippe and Julien da Costa. In the Team Kawasaki France there is more uncertainty regarding team line-up. On the number 11 bike Britain’s Steve Plater and French rider Gwen Giabbani are confirmed riders, but the third spot will go to either English rider Scott Smart or Spain’s Julian Mazuecos depending on the results in testing. Over at Yamaha GMT 94, the Team is looking to be on good form. At the Supersport World Championship in Valencia, David Checa and Sébastien Gimbert finished 14th and 15th respectively and in the French Superbike Championship, Olivier Four has taken over from Patrick Piot, replacing him on the Yamaha GMT 94. Riding the R1 for the Yamaha Austria Racing Team, Sébastien Scarnato has recovered after his fall during the free tests at Le Mans and will be riding his bike supported by Igor Jerman and Damian Cudlin. We also eagerly await the first test to see the Kawasaki of the new permanent Championship team, Qatar Endurance Racing Team, which will be ridden by Jose-Luis Cardoso, Ivan Silva and Mashel al Naimi. Elsewhere BMW will be returning to the competition after 50 years of absence with the BMW R1200S which will race in the Open category. In the absence of Stéphane Mertens, who is injured, BMW have named the American Nathan Kern as their rider. Official Le Mans 24hrs testing begins on Thursday 19th April. The race starts on Saturday 21st April at 15.00. Editorial Note: At Miami-Homestead Speedway last weekend, Kern said that BMW is running a new Boxer engine with overhead camshafts replacing the high-cam/short-pushrod configuration in current Boxer engines. Kern said the bike is scheduled for production in the future.