Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ ~ - v ..c o .... u o Team Hond8'. Chrlatlan Leon end Jean Claude Chemarln won the 24-hour 801 d'Or endurance race for the third might time. Honda sweeps 24 hours 01801 By Patrick Behar LECASTELET, FRANCE, SEPT. 16-17 The Honda factory team scored a -perfect 1-2-3 in the French classic Bol d' Or 24-hour endurance road'race on the Paul Ricard track in the southern part of France. Beautiful weather and some 100 ,000 fans made the transfer from the Buga tri track at Le Mans where tfie race was · h h sc h e d u Ie d 10 t e past , to t e 12. Paul Ricard a perfect success for the promoters. The T<:a~ Honda sweep was led by the C~nsuan Le~m/Jean Cla~d e Chemann team , ":'t~ Hubert Rigal an?Jacques Luc finishing second. T he Bntls.h e':lt~y of Sta~ Wood s and Charhe.Wllhams was third . . . ~plte the pe'!ect Honda scor e , It didn t COf':Ie as eastly as the results show. Two . outsld~ teams gave Honda some wornes dunng th e first part of th e 24 hour e~durance race . .. Patrick Pons and Christian Sarron , ~he tW? stars of Fr~nch and in t ern a t ion a l road racmg . we re engaged a?oard a. de~uned Yamaha OW~ll equipped With lights. They_!ed the. race ~or 17 . hours before e nd~ng their glorious ride Sunday mormng with a broken cran~haft. The ?ther teams were a beautiful Kawasaki and the Yosh imura S~zuki ridden by Wes Cooley and Ron PIerce. That team recently beat the Honda of Chemarin and Leon during the eight hour race at the Suzuka tra ck in Japan, and gave a warning to Honda . Conscious of the danger represented by that bike , Honda came to Paul Ricard two weeks prior to the race for intensive test ing. som et hi ng th ey never did in the past. Pops and Fujio Yoshimura rought the same machine they took to victory in [apana, a 1l00cc GSIOOO Suzuki ~hich develops some 145 hp according to Fujio. Wes and Ron were very confident and sure they would d o a performance on th e fa st Paul Rica rd ci rcuit. Du ring the p ra ct ice sess io ns , Christian Sa rron and Patrick Pons easily got the pole p ositio n wit h a 2:08.4 7 clock ing then ca me the Leon /Chemarin Hond a a full four seconds behind. Co oley a nd Pier ce got th e 15th fastest tim e with a 2: 17.20 . Da ve Emde and Harry Klinzmann , who took Dal e Singleton's place for th e H onda fac tory ride . h ad so me ca rburetion problems during practice . and Dave could only manage 2: 23.99 . Emde arrived on Sept. 8 in France . (Hond a gave him an extra $2000 not to rid e at Laguna Seca ; they offered th e sam e deal to Singl eton . ) T he original amount was $2000 to ride the bike at Paul Ricard ; Harry got Dale's place without the bonus. but he was contacted Tuesday after Laguna Seca on David 's recommendation and arrived in France on Wednesday . Practice ended Thursday afternoon and Klinzmann got very little time to practice. The bike that the two American riders had came directly from Japan and was a very special model tuned b y the - rep re sen ra rives in England and engaged by a French dealer l Secr ecy around that bike was grea t and a lot of speculation was cir culatin g a long th e pit row . Unfortu nately Da ve an d Harry had carburetion problems during pract ice and when th e Hond a mechanics finally fixed it , it was too late for. the scheduled time. Dave managed a 2:18 aftertimed practice. According to Gerald Davison. general manager of Honda of Gr eat Britain, the machine that Dave and Harry rode is a very special bike whi ch came directly from Japan . It is a prototype . a much faster machine than th e RCB 1000s ridden by Leon/Chemarin and Riga llLuc. The red line is 11,500 rp m versus 9 .500 for the RCB and it develops some 140 hp . The machine is also more torquey and much faste r the engine wa s designed differently a nd will probabl y be used next season . Honda wan t ed to test th e motorcycle and were very pleased with the two you ng California riders. "T hey are very professional , very rel iable a nd they do understand wh a t test ing means ," sa id Davison . T hey had some problems during the ra ce : For th em it was a new motorcycl e completely different to what they are used to riding , and the track was also very new for them , though Emde raced here last Ap ril. According to David Em de the bik e is faster than his Yamaha OW31 on top end but it's a !title bit heavier. The other American team also had problems during practice . "T he bike ' ran on two cylinders. It took Pops and the mechanics an hour and a half to fix bad ignition coils, then I turned five laps. The bike was . OK , but we changed the Goodyear in the back for a Michelin which is much more grippy on this track . We kept a Goodyear in the front which seemed to pe rform well. After than I turned 2: 17, .we changed th e ha ndlebars arid adjusted the suspensions. At 7:00 p .m . I bent an exhaust va lve, so we didn't ha ve any night pra cti ce . But Ron and I are very confiden t running a t 2:18 ; th is bik e has the sa me power at 8,000 rpm as the one we run in the States at' 10,000 ," sa id Cooley. Fujio d idn't seem worried. by the bent valve! "WeI had the same problem at Suzuka th e; . day before and we still won th e ra ce ," t, he said. For the fans in France, the name of' Yoshimura is very well known because of Pops' products , and a lot of' spectators made the bike their favorite , th e dark horse which coukf beat the Hondas . A spectator' commented, "W e are fed up with' Honda winning everything every year ~ We want somebod y who came from .. nowhere to beat the giant. Yoshimura is the orie, we are supporting them~" Beautiful wea ther with th e ' temperature over 80° , a la rge crowe made that Saturday afternoon pri or to the race a very intense moment for everyb od y. Debbie Evans made some ' trials stunts just a few hours before the beginnin g of th e most popular 24 -hour endura nce ra ce in th e world. At 3 :00 p .m . 74 teams started th is prestigious race . Christian Leon on the number on e factory Honda got first follow ed by Rigal on th e number two Honda . The factory Hondas hav e an electric start which doesn't ex ist on the OW3 1 of Sarron/Pons, whi ch was in third place on the first lap . Sa rron passed th e two Hondas and took the lead on the second lap. Wes Cooley , who had the first relay, . was a very impressive third place after Rigal's fall on the fifth lap due to a nat front tire . Emde was in 32nd position. The other surprise of the early stages was the fourth place of Estrosi Boinet aboard a factory Ducati 900 , which is a fantast ic show to watch in the corners. The Ducati is a much better handler, and compensated th e lack of horsepower by a superb handling. The seco nd hour of the race saw two major e ve nt s. The first was the comeback of Jacques Luc, who took Rigal's place aboard th e number two . Honda . Riding without fairing . he

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