VOL. 55 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 18, 2018 P47
HONDA LOOKS BACK AT THE 2018 BOL D'OR 24 HOUR
T
he Bol d'Or 24 Hour at Paul Ricard
in the south of France is one of two
24-hour events within the FIM Endurance
World Championship, the second of which
being the Le Mans 24 Hour, round two of
the 2018/2019 championship that will be
held on April 20-21, 2019.
Honda finally cracked the EWC last
year, taking the title with the French-based
F.C.C. TSR Honda France organization
with riders Freddy Foray, Josh Hook and
Alan Techer, breaking the dominance of
Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha teams have held for over a decade.
This short video shows what a 24-hour race is like in the world championship, with short interviews
from riders like Hook, Erwin Nigon and Sebastien Gimbert. The Bol is legendary almost more as a party
than as a race. With 70,000 spectators in attendance, the carnival atmosphere of the event needs to be
experienced to be believed. If you get the chance to see a European 24 Hour, make sure you do it.
There were no full-time riders from the U.S. in the EWC last year. The U.S. has a good history in the
Endurance World Championship, with Jason Pridmore sealing the title in 2003 and 2012, but the fact of
it being a mainly European-based series (with one race in Japan—the Suzuka 8 Hours), doesn't help rid-
ers from this side of the Atlantic wanting to get over and try their hand at endurance racing. CN
DANI PEDROSA
GIFTED HONDAS
F
ormer Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was given
an incredible present by the Honda Racing Corpo-
ration in Japan over the weekend, in the form of his
2005 250cc World Championship-winning Telefonica
Movistar Honda RS250 and a Repsol Honda RC213V.
Pedrosa was presented the machines at the end-of-
season Honda Thanks Day at the Honda-owned Mo-
tegi venue in Japan by HRC key staff. The Spaniard,
who rode his entire professional career with Honda
that saw him take three World Championship wins (1
x 125cc and 2 x 250cc) and three times finish runner
up in the MotoGP World Championship, will leave
Honda to take up a test rider role with KTM for 2019.
Pedrosa announced his retirement from the sport
ahead of the German MotoGP last July. CN
Pedrosa's man cave just got a whole lot nicer
with two of his race machines gifted by HRC.
