Bol d’Or 24-Hour
FIM Endurance World Championship
Paul Ricard Circuit, Le Castellet, France
September 20, 2015
Race Results:
1. Team SRC Kawasaki (Gregory Leblanc/Matthieu Lagrive/Fabien Foret), Kaw ZX-10R, SBK, 684 laps, 24:01:22.895
2. GMT94 Yamaha (David Checa/Kenny Foray/Matheiu Gines), Yam YZF-R1, SBK, 682 laps
3. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Vincent Philippe/Anthony Delhalle/Etienne Masson), Suz GSX-R1000, SBK, 677 laps
4. Tati Team Beaujolais Racing (Julien Enjoras/Cedric Tangre/Michel Savary), Kaw ZX-10R, STK, 673 laps
5. Team Traqueuer Louit Moto 33 (Julien Pilot/Emeric Jonchiere/MorganBerchet), Kaw ZX-10R, STK, 672 laps
6. BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com (Markus Reiterberger/Bastien Mackels/Pedro Vallcaneras), BMW S1000RR, SBK, 669 laps
7. Volpker NRT 49 & Penz13 by Schubert Motors (Marco Nekvasil/Stefan Kerschbaumer/Dominik Vincon), BMW S1000RR, STK, 668 laps
8. Team 3ART Yam-Avenue (Alex Plancassagne/Gabriel Pons/Olivier Depoorter), Yam YZF-R1, STK, 664 laps
9. Atomic 68 (CyrilBrivet/Frederic Jond/Giovanni Bussei), Suz GSX-R1000, STK, 662 laps
10. Team Aprilmoto Motors Events (Gregory Fastre/Alex Cudlin/JulienDiguet), Suz GSX-R1000 SBK, 660 laps
38. Honda Endurance Racing (Julian Da Costa/Sebastien Gimbert/Freddy Foray), Hon CBR1000RR SP, SBK, 537 laps
44. Monster Energy Yamaha – YART (Broc Parkes/Max Neukirchner/Sheridan Morais), Yam YZF-R1, SBK, 398 laps
53. Junior Team LMS Suzuki (Baptiste Guittet/Gregg Black/Romain Maitre), Suz GSX-R1000, STK, 105 laps
54. Team Bolliger Switzerland (Horst Saiger/Roman Stamm/Nicolas Salchaud), Kaw ZX-10R, SBK, 93 laps
Provisional World Championship Results:
Superbike (Endurance World Cup – EWC):
1. SERT, 154 points
2. GMT94 Yamaha, 132
3. SRC Kawasaki, 100
4. BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com, 71
5. Team Traqueur Louit Moto33, 68
6. Team Bolliger Switzerland, 55
7. Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki, 54
8. Tati Team Beaujolais Racing, 53
9. Honda Endurance Racing, 50
10. Monster Energy – YART, 41
More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com:
BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com with impressive showing to sixth spot at the Bol d’Or
Le Castellet, France. BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com finished the 79th Bol d’Or at the Paul Ricard Circuit Le Castellet in sixth position after an impressive showing by Markus Reiterberger (GER), Bastien Mackels (BEL) and Lukas Pesek (CZE) on course of the final 24 hours race of the 2015 FIM Endurance World Championship to finish in sixth position.
The race did not start in the best mood for the German squad with start rider Reiterberger having to enter the pits to get the Vehicle Down Sensor fixed after just one lap in the race. The trio dropped back to the end of the field losing one and a half laps directly at the beginning of the day long race.
During the night team principal Rico Penzkofer decided to give his riders Reiterberger, Mackels and Pesek the task of double turns in order to concede them more relaxing time before heading out once more.
The squad counterpunched however to take over second spot after the night. On course for the podium the team discovered another problem with the drive unit which meant Reiterberger had to take a lift back to the pits to get the BMW S 1000 RR rear swing arm repaired. The team entered the track again and brought home a well deserved sixth spot in the overall ranking and got fourth in the EWC category. With 55 teams entering the race and 20 not making it to the final ranking this year’s Bol d’Or was a extremely hard one – for both, machinery and riders.
Markus Reiterberger
Rider
“Well, for sure we look back at this race now with mixed emotions. We had two small problems which threw us out of contention for the podium fight which looked good. That is frustrating for sure, but we did not sell ourselves short in this race I’d say. We had the pace of the leaders and podium finishers, just luck wasn’t on our side. I thank everyone in the team for the efforts in this year’s season and especially in this last race of the season.”
Bastien Mackels
Rider
“Of course you are not happy to finish sixth in a race where you had the podium for grabs and this happened the second time now after Oschersleben. But we have to remember that everyone was doing a great job here and you can’t prepare luck or buy it. It was the first EWC season for everyone of us and I think we found a base to built on for the years to come. You actually can’t ask for more – out of four races we saw the chequered flag three times, finishing sixth twice and seventh once. I am proud to have been part of such a team like BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com and I am looking forward to next year.”
Lukas Pesek
Rider
“Well, this was my first Endurance race and with a 24 hours one I couldn’t have choose a harder one for sure. I think we all did a great job – on the bike as well as in the pits – and I am happy to have finished the race. Of course we started dreaming of the podium on course of the race but it wasn’t to be. Looking at the bad luck of some other teams we for sure had some as well, but not quite as big as them.”
Rico Penzkofer
Team Principal
“Well, that was our first season in the EWC category and today’s 24 hours race is not one to hide for. We had the pace and riders to fight for the podium, for a long time we were leading the pit stop ranking in terms of standing time as well, which means our pit crew did an excellent and awesome job. For sure it started with quite with an impact as we had to do a short repair stop right at the beginning of the race, but we fought back to enter second position during the night. We were dreaming of the podium but had some more bad luck once more on the course of the race. This season we have only one DNF and three finishes, which means we gathered a lot of experience to build on in years to come. Some of our competitors had it quite the other way round with just one finish and three DNFs so we can actually be proud of what we achieved.”
More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing:
The Honda Endurance Racing team retires from the Bol d’Or
After almost 20-hours racing and fighting in the top three, the Honda Endurance Racing team have retired from the Bol d’Or at the 5.8km Paul Ricard circuit in Southern France.
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.
The race got underway at 15:00 (GMT+1) on Saturday with Foray starting the race from fourth position. A good start saw the squad quickly move into third position and then the team battled with the top-three. 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 just before 10:00 (local time) this morning. The Honda crew worked to isolate and fix the problem as quickly as possible, but at 10:30, 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.
After a year of highs and lows for the Honda Endurance Racing team, they finish the Endurance World Championship ninth with 50 points in total and determined to come back stronger for the 2016 season.
For all the latest news on the team in real time follow @HondaRacingCBR on Twitter.
Neil Tuxworth
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
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
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.
Freddy Foray
To be honest, at the beginning of the race we didn’t think that we would be able to fight in the leading group that quickly, but then we led the race and we started to believe that this time the luck was on our side. Of course it’s disappointing because we all worked hard and we did not cross the finish line, which is hard for the whole team. We would have liked to finish the season on a positive note but that’s racing, so now we just have to keep working for next year.
Sébastien Gimbert
This race was very important to me, this season has been a bit complicated for us all because the whole team worked hard and we were unlucky most of the time. As a rider it is very frustrating, we spent the whole night fighting to stay in first position, and in the end we cannot finish the race. What I’ll keep in mind in that we made the show while we were leading, the media talked about the CBR and our team, which is great for our partners and for the people who came to support us, but I think that we deserved better luck. Now if we want to fight for victories next year we have to stay focused and get back to work as soon as possible.
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha-Racing.com:
Yamaha Ends FIM Endurance World Championship with Sensational Second Place Bol d’Or Finish
GMT94 Yamaha rode the catch up race of a lifetime at the 79th edition of the iconic Bol d’Or 24 Hour race this weekend 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.
Today’s 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.
Team 3ART YAM’ Avenue also rode a strong race to complete the 24-hour Bol d’Or inside the top ten with a solid eighth place in the overall ranking and were the fourth Superstock bike to cross the finish line. This achievement earned them 15 points on top of the 3 points they collected earlier in the race at the 16-hour mark, moving them up to seventh in the SST ranking.
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.”