With the weather changing almost constantly during the weekend’s race and close to freezing at night, the 76th annual Bol d’Or proved to be both an exciting and grueling race that saw teams changing to wets, slicks, and cut-slicks almost constantly in the pit stops. Racing for 24 hours, the SRC Kawasaki Team did the unthinkable, and beat the heavily favored Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) in this year’s Bol d’Or endurance race. Losing most of its time in the pits, SERT had to contend with a crash in the fourth hour of the Bol d’Or, which sent lead-rider Vincent Philippe home early with a broken collarbone.
Completing the remaining 20 hours of the race with only two riders, SERT was able to close the gap to SRC Kawasaki in the final hours of the contest to only 60 seconds, but after several more pit stops the team would have to settle for finishing just on the same lap as the Kawasaki squad, as they slowed their pace to ensure victory. While one could make the argument that SERT lost the race instead of SRC Kawasaki winning it, riding a flawless and careful 24 hours is a part of the winning strategy in the FIM World Endurance Championship. Kudos to the SRC Kawasaki Team.
Concluding its second day of qualifying, the grid for the 2012 Bol d’Or remains essentially in the same order, as the times on Friday at Magny-Cours were slower than yesterday’s qualifying session. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team’s legacy of FIM World Endurance Championship domination remains intact, which lead SERT Team Principal to say, “I don’t understand what the competition is doing!” during the press debrief. SERT’s Vincent Philippe was the only rider to break into the 1’39 time bracket. The 76th running of the Bol d’Or 24 Heures starts tomorrow at noon, local time.
The Bol d’Or 24 hours endurance race is this weekend, and is the first stop on the FIM World Endurance Championship (EWC) calendar. With the FIM averaging the qualifying laps for each teams’ riders, which is usually three riders to a team, it should come as no surprise that the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) is once again on top of the time sheets for the first day of qualifying.
With 33 years of experience and 11 Championship wins, SERT has been the dominate factory team in (EWC), and the all French crew considers the Bol d’Or its home race. Campaigning a 2012 Suzuki GSX-R100 with a Yoshimura-built motor, SERT will have to contend with some stout-looking Yamahas, as well as the ever-learning Honda TT Legends squad. Checkout the full results after the jump.
With 33 years of history surrounding the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT), the Japanese manufacturer has one of the winningest legacies in the FIM World Endurance Championship (WEC). Set to start again with the 24-hour-long Bol d’Or race at Magny-Cours on April 14th-15th, WEC teams were out at the French track this week, with many debuting their 2012 squads. Winning nine of the last ten runnings of the Bol d’Or, SERT is of course this year’s favorite to win again.
A spectacle in its own right, the World Endurance Championship and its rounds like the Bol d’Or are more of a novelty for motorcyclists on this side of the pond, and provide often only the rare glimpse of race-trim bikes with headlights. As such, we get out first proper look at SERT’s Yoshimura-powered GSX-R1000, which will be ridden by Fabien Foret, Vincent Philippe, and Anthony Delhalle — three Frenchmen with no intention of losing at their home race.