WSBK riders play petanque on the starting grid
Magny-Cours (France), Thursday 2 October 2014 – The Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours hosted the usual Thursday Media Event to kick-start the penultimate round of the 2014 eni FIM Superbike World Championship. A great and entertaining match of petanque (bowls), a well known and famous sporting discipline that was born in France, took place on the starting grid of the 4,411m venue under sunny skies and warm temperatures.
WSBK riders Sylvain Guintoli, Loris Baz, Chaz Davies, Eugene Laverty, Leon Haslam, Jeremy Guarnoni, Sylvain Barrier, Fabien Foret, Claudio Corti and Geoff May were joined by local WSS peers Florian Marino, Jules Cluzel and Valentin Debise for a shootout match and were coached by the likes of Emmanuel Lucien and Vincent Demuth, two local petanque players who compete regularly at national level.
All riders were given a personalised set of bowls with their names engraved.
After two elimination games, the final match saw the team of Leon Haslam, Chaz Davies, Geoff May and Florian Marino coming out victorious, receiving a bottle of Prosecco DOC each for their impressive performance on court. Haslam in particular showed great skills as he led his squad to victory.
The riders will hit the track tomorrow for the first free practice sessions for all classes.