Disappointment for BMW Motorrad France

BMW Motorrad France Team Thevent were forced to retire from today's Suzuka 8 Hour, the second round of the 2013 Endurance World Championship, after two crashes in the first half of the race. With Damian Cudlin forced to withdraw after sustaining a fractured left tibia in a free practice crash, Erwan Nigon and Jason Pridmore put in impressive performances in qualifying to secure fifth place on the grid for today's eight-hour race. Nigon lost places at the start, but pushed hard in the opening laps to work his way back up through the field and run comfortably in the top five. The Frenchman maintained his pace after the first pit stop, but then crashed after losing the front in a slow turn and was forced back to the pit box for repairs. The mechanics got the bike repaired and back out on track with little delay, only to receive a stop and go penalty that lost the team even more valuable time. Pridmore then took over and was able to match the lap times of the leading European riders, before he too lost the front in one of Suzuka's slower turns and crashed. The American, who was drafted in at the last minute as a replacement for the injured Sylvain Barrier, managed to get the bike restarted and back to the pit box, where the bike was inspected and deemed too damaged to continue safely. It's been a tough week for BMW Motorrad France Team Thevent at Suzuka, with an even tougher ending, but the riders and team are determined to make amends with a strong result in the 8 Hours of Oschersleben, which takes place in just three weeks time. Erwan Nigon
"I didn't get the best of starts, but I pushed as hard as I could, got past Haga and then Kiyonari and was able to match the pace of the leaders. I was losing out a little on acceleration out of the turns, but was able to use the top speed advantage we have with the BMW S1000RR to close again on the straights. The bike felt planted in the faster corners, but the feeling from the front wasn't so good in the slower turns, which is where both Jason and me crashed. It's disappointing not to finish the race after such a good qualifying performance, but we knew it was going to be tough once we were down to just two riders. The heat and humidity make riding here at Suzuka extremely demanding and, for me, it's too much for only two riders. On the positive side, we've made some big steps with the bike. This bike is really fast now and we saw the benefit of that in both qualifying and the early part of the race." Michael Bartholemy
"Today we've had a disappointing end to a very tough week, but I can't fault the team, as they've done a good job in very difficult circumstances. After qualifying an impressive fifth yesterday, Erwan and Jason were confident going into warm up, only to be hampered by engine problems on both bikes. Not the ideal way to start race day. From the start Erwan was straight into the top five and looked set to remain there until he closed the front and crashed. The additional stop and go penalty lost us even more time, but the team pushed on and Jason did a good job matching the pace of the regular EWC riders, until he also lost the front and went down. The bike was deemed too badly damaged to continue. It's our second retirement in as many races, which makes the next race at Oschersleben a critical one for us. We need to go there and finish on the podium, as we did last season."