The battle began raging at the end of the first hour of the Oschersleben 8 Hours. For seven hours, GMT94 Yamaha and Suzuki Endurance Racing Team were neck and neck, taking the lead by turns to give everyone edge-of-seat thrills!
“It’s extraordinary we ended the race so close to our rivals,” Kenny Foray, one of the GMT94 riders, said after the finish. “It was a really intense race. At the last handover, I kept checking the panel SERT was holding out for Anthony Delhalle, who was on circuit, and I stayed totally focused.” David Checa adds: “It’s true that the end of the race was tough, and this is a fantastic win! After our triumph at the Suzuka 8 Hours and now this win, we’ve proved that the new Yamaha is working really well.” Mathieu Ginès, the team’s third pilot, agrees: “I’ve even more reason to be happy because, since I’m currently top of the German IDM championship, I feel a bit like I’m on home territory.”
Although the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team is disappointed, they’re staying upbeat. “We know the GMT94 bike is very fast on circuit and we’re fast in the pits, so it all evens out; the safety car interventions put us at a disadvantage,” explains Vincent Philippe. “But we put up a good fight; we never let up. And considering all the crashes and mechanical problems many of the teams had to face, we can only be satisfied with the result, not least because we’re still top of the championship standings.”
Although the Monster Energy Yamaha YART team had also set out to win, they ended up on the third step of the podium. “We lagged behind at the start of the race because of problems with the electronics and then a minor fall,” says Ivan Silva. “But we didn’t lose too much time. All three of us riders are at the same level; it’s nice to ride within a homogeneous team.”
Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki finished in first place in the Superstock category, and in fourth place overall. It was another great performance from this team, which faced a threat from local team Völpker NRT 48 & Penz13 by Schubert Motors until the latter lost any hope after Marco Neckvasil’s fall. Starteam Pam-Racing and Team Traqueur Louit Moto 33 rounded off the Superstock podium.
Honda Racing, the winner of last year’s race, managed to hang on to fifth place despite several incidents: running out of fuel, a minor fall by Julien Da Costa and a pit stop to refit the chain inside the sprocket.
BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13. com finished in sixth place, though its star rider Markus Reiterberger was in the lead for the entire first hour of the race. The factory BMW had to refuel more frequently than its rivals, and was also thrown off-kilter by a clutch problem throughout the event.
One of the major incidents of this year’s Oschersleben 8 Hours was SRC Kawasaki retiring 2 hours and 40 minutes into the race because of a broken valve when the team was in second place.
The FIM EWC players will meet up again on 19 and 20 September at the Bol d’Or, which is back at the Paul Ricard circuit in Castellet this year.
FIM EWC