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BMW Motorrad France Team Thevent were forced to retire from the 77th edition of the Bol d'Or, after a crash in the sixth hour of the race left the #99 BMW S1000RR too damaged to continue.
Sébastien Gimbert and Sylvain Barrier worked hard in the first quarter of the race to make up time lost to a minor crash for Barrier during his first relay. The French duo were running in third and starting to close the gap to the leaders as the race passed the five-hour mark.
Karl Muggeridge took over from Sylvain Barrier for his first relay aboard the #99 BMW S1000RR, but encountered a brake problem at the end of the ultra-fast Golf straight and ran straight on at Adelaide. The Australian had no option but to lay the bike down before hitting the tyre wall.
Despite suffering such a high-speed crash, Muggeridge ran with the bike all the way back to the pits. Not the way the former World Supersport Champion was expecting to celebrate his 39th birthday today.
Gimbert took to the track once the crash damage had been repaired, but was forced to return to the pit box after experiencing problems on his first lap. Following further inspection of the bike by the team's technical staff, the decision was made to withdraw from the race on safety grounds.
"This is the third time in as many years we've crashed out of the Bol d'Or and it gets harder to accept each time," declared Team Principal, Michael Bartholemy. "I don't want to talk about bad luck or bogey tracks; if you want to be World Champions you must make your own luck and be competitive at every circuit. We need to learn from this and make sure we don't make it four from four next season.
"We're not sure what caused the problem for Karl, but he couldn't have picked a worse place to crash. You're coming off the fastest part of the track and braking heavily for the slowest corner and I can't imagine what it's like to suddenly encounter a brake problem there. It was a big crash and one that Karl was lucky to walk away from. The mechanics did their best to get the bike back out, but it was damaged to the point where safety was an issue, so we had no option but to withdraw," concluded Bartholemy."
BMW Motorrad France Team Thevent will return to the track at Suzuka for the second round of the Endurance World Championship, which takes place on 28th July.