From a press release issued by FGSport Group:

Suzuki Castrol Win Vallelunga 200

Suzuki Castrol have completely dominated the Vallelunga 200 round of the World Endurance Championship, winning the race by a comfortable 45 second margin and lapping the rest of the field up to third place.

Vincent Phillipe started the race for the team, and was able to quickly pull out a gap of more than half a second a lap on the chasing pack of Yamaha GMT94, Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 and Yamaha Phase One. Each of these three teams held second place at some stage in the first hour, but none came close to catching Suzuki Castrol. The DRE Ducati held a place in the top four for much of the race, due to its ability to stay out on track for much longer on a single tank of fuel. However, with two compulsory pit stops having to be made the Ducati eventually slipped down to finish in sixth position.

In the final session of the race the top six teams were able to lap in the 1:21 bracket when traffic conditions on the busy circuit allowed, but it proved difficult for them to close the gap between each other.

Quotes:

Vincent Philippe, Suzuki Castrol, First place: “It’s very good to finish the race in
first place. I would have preferred to be world champion, but this is good instead. The race was not so difficult for me and our team led for the whole distance, this is very difficult with pit stops so for us it is a very good result.”

William Costes, Yamaha GMT94, second place: “It was a very difficult race. There was no pressure for the championship, but we would have like to have won this weekend. From the middle to the race the tyres went off, but David Checa took a 15 second advantage in his last session which made all the difference.”

Gwen Giabbani, Yamaha Endurance Moto 38, third place: “The beginning of the race was very hard because I lost a lot of time in the first few laps and so I had to fight hard to catch GMT94 and Phase One. We pushed on and had a good battle, but GMT94’s tactics were better than us so we decided to settle for third place in the world championship.”

Christophe Guyot, Yamaha GMT94, 2004 World Endurance Champions: “For us this season has been fantastic, because the new Yamaha R1 was so good. All season if we did not come second, we came first. It’s impossible to win a race every time but we are so happy to have finished every race in the podium this season. I would like to thank the riders especially; the performance of Sebastien Gimbert in qualifying at Magny Cours this weekend has made me very proud; it shows the quality of the World Endurance Championship now.”

3rd October 2004

Top Ten Race Positions

1st 3 – Suzuki Castrol – FRA – Suzuki GSX-R1000 –Philippe, Four, Cogan 100 laps

2nd 94 – Yamaha GMT94 – FRA – Yamaha YZF-R1 – Checa, Costes, Guyot + 0:49

3rd 38 – Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 – FRA – Yamaha YZF-R1 –Giabbani, Mulot, Protat +1:12

4th 1 – Yamaha Phase One Endurance – GBR – Yamaha YZF-R1 – Scarnato, Mertens + 1lap

5th 5 – WRT Honda Austria – AUT – Honda CBR1000RR – Moreira, Ellison +1 lap

6th 9 – Ducati DRE – ITA – Ducati 999R –Garcia, Liverani, Marchetti +1 lap

7th 7 – Yamaha Austria Racing Team – AUT – Yamaha YZF-R1 – Thomas, Edwards +1 lap

8th 8 – Kawasaki Bolliger – SUI – Kawasaki ZX10R –Kellenberger, Morillon +2 laps

9th 666 – Kawasaki Diablo Bolliger – GBR – Kawasaki ZX10R – Hutchins, Falcke, Mizera +3 laps

10th 47 – Bridgestone Bikers Profi – GER – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – Tode, Roethig +4 laps