Yamaha Brings Endurance Title Chase to Bol d’Or Season Finale
The 2015 FIM Endurance World Championship season will end on a high this weekend with the 79th edition of the iconic Bol d’Or 24 Hour race on the 19th and 20th of September. The round in Castellet (France) marks the end of the four-races long season that currently sees GMT94 Yamaha in contention for the championship title in what is the ultimate test for both man and machine.
After a stunning victory at the eight-hour race in Oscherleben four weeks ago, GMT94 Yamaha hold second place in the standings, 23 points behind the championship leader, and have their eyes fixed on the Endurance World Championship trophy with still 60 points up for grabs.
This weekend they will be riding with a special yellow 60 year anniversary livery, making them even more eager to rise up for the challenge and underline Yamaha Motor’s 60 year racing milestone. Their brand new Yamaha YZF-R1 and its riders David Checa, Kenny Foray and Mathieu Gines will be put to the test during 24 hours of non-stop racing at a circuit that is known for its extremely long straight, making finding the right balance for engine power key. However, Team Manager Christophe Guyot has led his team to victory in 2007’s Bol d’Or and the team has won the Endurance World title chase twice in 2004 and 2014.
Like GMT94 Yamaha, the Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team will also be sporting the 60 year anniversary livery as a part of Yamaha Motor’s 60 year anniversary celebrations and are equally excited to return to action. They showed a blistering pace at the previous round in Oschersleben, where they stormed to a well-deserved third place, and continued to make strides in the official test at Circuit Paul Ricard two weeks ago, positioning themselves as key protagonists. Though the YART team is yet to stand on the top step of the podium at Bol d’Or, they have enjoyed four podium finishes and aim to gift Yamaha the victory this year.
YART’s Team Manager, Mandy Kainz, is fixed on scoring another top result this weekend and has come fully prepared for battle. His strong rider line-up for the upcoming weekend will consist of Broc Parkes, Iván Silva and Sheridan Morais. They will be joined by Max Neukirchner, who returns from a hip injury he sustained at the Nürburgring three months ago in the Superbike*IDM International German Championship. A final decision on which three of the four riders will be taking part in the gruelling 24-hour race will be made on Friday.
Bol d’Or was first organized by Eugene Mauve in 1922. At the time the race included motorcycles and automobiles, but was later made solely for motorcycles. The race used to be held at Le Mans, but was later moved to Circuit Paul Ricard, then to Magny-Cours, to be moved back to Circuit Paul Ricard after fifteen years following last winter’s renovation that made the track more modern and safer. The 5,861 km circuit was created by Paul Ricard in 1970 and has hosted 14 Grand Prix of France of Formula 1, 22 Bol d’Or and 12 MotoGP races. The relocation of Bol d’Or makes little difference in the visitors. As endurance is a popular category of racing in France thousands of fans camp outside of the track, giving the weekend an incredible atmosphere.
David Checa – GMT94 Yamaha rider
“The feeling with the bike is really good and getting better since the start of the season. The target is simple: we want to win the race for Yamaha and the team and then afterwards we hope it has been enough to win the championship. Our goal from the beginning until now has always been to win everything with respect to the other teams and all the riders. The Paul Ricard track is really special because it has such a long straight and has tight corners so you need to have a great rhythm. It’s not a circuit where you ride five laps on and go fast, you need to build up a rhythm and on the second day of the test my feeling was a lot better. All three riders had the same pace, the team is performing well and I think we can win. If you win Oschersleben you know the bike is good, because you can’t pull that off with the wrong bike. Of course endurance events are special races because you not only need to be fast, but also consistent, have a team and tyres that work well, as well as a bit of luck. However, sometimes you have to create your own luck and I think we are working in a good way to increase the chance to win. The only thing we can do during a 24-hour race is push to the maximum from the beginning until the end of the race and we will see what happens.”
Christophe Guyot – GMT94 Yamaha Team Manager
“We are feeling really good, because the track is very nice and the whole team enjoys going to Paul Ricard. We know that many spectators will come and hopefully the sun will shine. We won the last race and are competing for the title, so everything is really exciting. We are 23 points behind and we can challenge for a podium place this weekend, the bike is really good. We will have to try to finish the race and then we’ll see. The only question mark for us is that we have never worked with the new YZF-R1 on Paul Ricard and we don’t have enough experience with the new gearbox, which is one of the most important things in endurance. However our current bike is better than ever, because the chassis is so good and the engine’s cross-plane is a big advantage, especially when coming out of slow corners and we are very fast. For me, the YZF-R1 is the best bike on every circuit in the world, but Paul Ricard is particular with its over a kilometre-long straight and long corners and this takes a toll on the engine. We will probably ride with a safe solution this weekend, because I don’t want to take any risks, and next year, when we’ll have more experience, the engine power will be better. The tests at Paul Ricard went really well. We have a good pace and the rhythm was very good so we still want to go for the victory.”
Broc Parkes – Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team Rider
“I’m looking forward to Bol d’Or. The test went quite well and all the riders for our team were really fast. We were the only team that didn’t test there previously, while pretty much all the other teams had done a two-day test there, so we started on the back foot. To see what we did, all four of us were right on the pace which was similar to what we did at Oschersleben and I think for the race we are in a really good position. I’ve been doing a lot more training to be ready for the 24-hour long distance. In these endurance races you never know what will happen and this circuit is very hard on the engines, because the straight is so long. The engine is going to be under a lot of stress so I think this is going to play part as an important factor in order to finish the race. Of course we want to be on the podium, but our goal is to win. During the test we tried to work on the bike’s fuel consumption to be able to ride longer stints. Last time out we had some problems, but there is no reason why we can’t win and we definitely had the pace during practice and qualifying. The tyres are quite close so I don’t think that will be a big issue.”
Mandy Kainz – Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team Team Manager
“We go to the Bol d’Or with big ambitions. I don’t think we need to prove our speed any further as we were one of the fastest teams in the pre-race test even though we hadn’t been testing there before. We just need to make it show in the result, because we were one of the fastest permanent teams at every race but luck was never on our side. We want to be on the podium again and hope to get the victory. The Bol d’Or is the only race in Europe that we haven’t won yet. We finished on the podium four times already, two times were second and two times we got third. We will do everything we can to give Yamaha the victory.”