SERT, GSR Kawasaki and Sapeurs Pompiers on Bol d’Or podium YART is 2009 Qtel FIM Endurance World champion QERT is 2009 FIM World Cup winner Despite a strong competition, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took victory at Bol d’Or, with Vincent Philippe, Freddy Foray and Olivier Four. The official Suzuki won the 73rd Bol d’Or with a three laps lead over the Honda Michelin Power Research Team of William Costes, Matthieu Lagrive and Josep Monge, and seven laps over the GSR Kawasaki of Kenny Foray, Kenny Noyes and Javier Fores. After fuel tanks capacity technical control, Honda Michelin Power Research Team was downgraded and penalized of 40 laps. Officially, Honda Michelin finishes tenth. For this reason, Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers go up finally on the podium. On this Suzuki 18, Stéphane Molinier, David Brière and Jérôme Tangre managed to hold back the Suzuki RAC 41 City Bike of Gregory Junod, Vincent Houssin and Greg Black. The Suzuki Sapeurs Pompiers finished less than 20 seconds ahead of Suzuki RAC 41. During the two-third of the race, the four favourites were fighting at Magny Cours at a Superbike pace. Depending on pit stops and rider change, the leadership changed several times between the Yamaha Austria Racing Team, the Honda Michelin Power Research Team, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team and the Yamaha France GMT 94. Yesterday evening, Yamaha Austria lost the contact with the leading trio as they suffered a oil leak, but managed to close the gap during the night, as the Yamaha France GMT 94 was facing some over-heating problems. The unfortunate looser of the 2009 Bol d’Or is the Yamaha GMT, who had to retire just after 7 am, with a blown-up head gasket. As they were holding thightly their third place, Yamaha Austria had to face the same over-heating problems, and things even got worst when electric problems occures. The YART stopped in the pits around 12:30 and went back on track for a last lap and passed the chequered flag in 35th place. If they missed the podium, YART can satisfy themselves with the 2009 Qtel FIM Endurance World title. Great performance as well for Suzuki AM Moto Racing Compétition, who is scoring at Bol d’Or their best result this season. Sullivan Hernandez, Pierre Guersillon and Fabrice Auger took the fifth place. Great result also for Bolliger Team Switzerland in ninth place. A crash the beginning of the race sent the Kawasaki of Horst Saiger, Eric Mizera and Jose Manuel Rita at the back of the pack. They also lost time with a fuel problem. The Swiss team Bolliger finished ahead of the Honda Michelin and the Italian Suzuki No Limits of Gianfranco Guareschi, Victor Casas and Emiliano Bellucci. In the Superstock class, the battle for victory was not less intense than in the Formula EWC. After 24 hours of race, the Kawasaki Maccio Racing of Lionel Richier, Julien Millet and Fred Moreira took class victory with sixth overall place, ahead of the Suzuki Motors Events Joe Bar Team of Gérald Muteau, Emilien Humeau and Frédéric Bernon. The Suzuki Qatar Endurance Racing Team completes the podium with Mashel Al Naimi, Rashid Al Mannai and Anthony Delhalle. That’s enough for the QERT to win the 2009 FIM World Cup, before the 8 hours of Doha, that will take place on the 14th of November in Qatar. Great favourite of the Superstock class, the Suzuki Junior Team LMS started the race fifhteen laps behind the leaders. In the second lap, Cédric Tangre on the Junior Team entered the Adelaide corner with a faulty brake. His crash also involved the Honda National Motos of Emeric Jonchière, the Yamaha BK Maco Moto Racing of Dani Ribalta and the Kawasaki Atomic Moto Sport of Jérémy Keller. This 24 hours race shown no mercy and the retired teams list is impressive. The Yamaha Phase One Endurance, who was seventh at the beginning of the evening, had to retire with a broken crankshaft. Involved in the early collective crash, the Yamaha BK Maco Moto Racing Team was stopped during their come back as their engine broke down in the night. The Suzuki Endurance Moto 45, who was racing for a Superstock podium, had to retire around 11 pm with a broken crank arm. This is the first time this team had to retire since they began racing in Endurance in 2006. The Honda RMT 21 Racing Germany and the Kawasaki Atomic Moto Sport left the race with overheating engine problems. The Yamaha Amadeus X-One, in sixth place after the first hour with Ayrton Badovini, had to deal with two crashes of Anthony Dos Santos and then a broken engine. The first to retire were the Honda National Motos. Emeric Jonchière was hit during the collective crash and had to be sent to the Nevers hospital with a head trauma. He was not allowed to get back on track. They were in fourth position on the starting grid. On the 53 teams engaged, 40 saw the chequered flag of the 73rd Bol d’Or. The public attendance was 55 000 spectators. The next and last round of the 2009 Qtel FIM Endurance World championship is the 8 Hours of Doha, the 14th of November in Qatar. And now, an updated press release from Kenny Noyes’ publicist: Kenny Noyes’ Team (GSR Kawasaki) Second in Bol d’ Or Kenny Noyes, riding with teammates Kenny Foray of France and Xavi Fores of Spain, initially took third on the Team GSR Kawasaki ZX10-R entered by Kawasaki France in the 73rd running of the Bol d’Or 24 Hours, but in post-race inspections the second place Michelin Power Research Team (Honda) was given a 40 lap penalty when it was found that the bike was running an oversize fuel tank (24.86 instead of the FIM maximum 24 liters). So GSR Kawasaki is promoted to second behind SERT (Suzuki Endurance Racing Team) and the Sapeurs Pompiers Suzuki team moves up to third. For Kenny it was the third time that he has finished second in an FIM World Championship Endurance race. The Spanish-based American road racer described his feelings after the podium ceremony: “We were racing for the podium for a long time with Yamaha YART, both on the timing sheets and on the track. I was having a lot of trouble at night out there until Steve Martin came by on the YART Yamaha and I was able to tuck in and figure the place out running with him. Eventually they retired with some kind of engine problems and that meant we could ease up a bit over the last three hours. “I think people have the idea that endurance racing is easier because you don’t have to ride flat out all the time. The hardest thing about a race like this is making sure you are not part of somebody else’s crash and taking a little extra care of the engine and gearbox. There were times out there in the night when things were getting real sketchy. For the French riders this is their Superbowl, the big one, so you have to expect anything, anywhere. They are fast and they know this place so well. But there are also really, really slow riders out there too and they are right on racing line–maybe racing with another guy who is also going the same speed, in some places, maybe 40 mph less on the entry to a fast corner. Imagine you are running in the dark–almost no lights except your own bouncing headlight beams on the black road–and there are fires all around at trackside! The fans started burning things in the night–eventually they set a grandstand on fire–so you are running past some big fires, coming up on some guys who are lost in their own race, moving around, and you know if you don’t pass them you might lose a second in the section, and about the time you decide there is just room to slip in under them, here comes this French guy, riding like there is no tomorrow and makes the kind of pass that I’d only make for the win on the last lap of a Spanish national! “This team worked real well, never slipped up, but the bike was hard to ride, hard to change directions–weighs probably 40 pounds more than my Extreme Kawasaki in Spain, and it took some time to understand the Pirelli tires–but they worked and gave good feel. I have a long ride in the car back to Barcelona in front of me now–a day to rest up–and then two days of team practice at Albacete to get ready for the next Spanish Extreme round. So, sure, I am happy–happy to be second but happier to survive!” The race was won by the Suzuki factory team (SERT) with the Michelin Power Research Honda team second, but, Yamaha Austria (YART) won the title in spite of retiring with overheating problems in the twenty-first hour while battling on the same lap for most of the race with the GSR Kawasaki team. Members of the Championship winning YART team, Igor Jerman of Slovakia, Steve Martin of Australia and Frenchman Gwen Giabbani, managed to get their R1 ready to do one final lap in order to be classified as finishers, but they didn’t need to because their only mathematical rival for the title, RT Racing Suzuki finished twelfth, meaning that YART took the title with one more round, Qatar, left to run. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: The Yamaha Austria Racing Team’s (YART) 2009 YZF R1 crossed the finish line at the Bol d’Or yesterday to claim the 2009 World Endurance Championship title. YART started the 24 hour race at its usual pace, setting the best lap time and keeping an unmatched tempo with consistent times under 1.42 for a streak of 91 laps. Unfortunately the team was heavily tested when some issues appeared and ultimately lost the chance of a podium. Nevertheless YART managed to finish the race to gain valuable points which were needed to claim the well deserved championship. The privately run team, who already have two championship second place finishes in 2006 and 2008 have been dominant all year on the all-new R1. Riders Steve Martin, Gwen Giabbani and Igor Jerman have been the riders to beat in 2009, taking the first three race victories in a row at Le Mans, Oschersleben and Albacete. A fourth place finish at Suzuka meant that the three points gained at yesterday’s race in Magny Cours was enough to confirm the win and get the champagne flowing with one more round to go in Qatar in November. Mandy Kainz, YART Team Manager “We came here to win, and we’ve done it. We tried to win all the races and for the last one it was not possible but we are very happy to win the title here already. It’s the first title for YART having taken second place twice, so we’ve waited long enough for it. The new Yamaha has proven it’s the best bike in the championship, it’s been incredibly reliable this year and consistently fast at every circuit. I want to say a thank you to the team who worked really hard at each round and to the riders who kept going and racing intelligently to bring home the points. Also a big thank you to all the Yamaha family for the help and support!” Igor Jerman, YART “This year was quite tough because we started with a new bike and new tyres, so the full package. Before the season started we had a lot of tests, we worked really hard to set up the bike for Michelin tyres and it worked really well. The season has been great; we’ve had no problems apart from the last race, so we are very happy with the bike. It’s great to have won the title, this was our wish for this year, we tried really hard and we did it. I’m really happy for Mandy and he worked really hard to make a good team and a good bike so deserves this win.” Steve Martin, YART “I feel ecstatic for the team, for Yamaha and all our technical partners, I want to say thank you for making my dreams come true. It’s fantastic to win with one race in hand so we can go to Qatar and really enjoy it with the pressure off. Big thanks to my fellow riders as well, it’s been a pleasure racing with them this year.” Gwen Giabbani, YART “I feel a bit disappointed about yesterday’s race as we had the speed and everything we needed to win. We have the title though so I feel better! The rest of the year was all perfect, winning at Le Mans to start with was unexpected but the best thing for us, and we knew we were capable of winning the other races from then on. It all ran easy from there, we just missed the podium at Suzuka but we took the points we needed and apart from that it’s been great.” In the UK, another successful weekend of racing at Croft saw GSE rider Leon Camier take a 6th and a 1st (his 16th victory of the year) while his team-mate James Ellison took a 2nd and a 4th. The results mean Yamaha have clinched the manufacturer’s title for the British Championship, and as the final two rounds of the British Superbike Championship approach, the last races will decide which of the two Airwaves Yamaha riders will claim the title, another victory for the 2009 R1. There was more celebrating in Germany yesterday as Jorg Teuchert wrapped up the final round of the IDM German Superbike Championship with a second place and a victory. Teuchert had already secured the title by Assen last month having dominated all year on his R1.