Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eR RACE DAD e World Chameionshie Endurance Road Race Series Round 1 The Castrol Suzuki team of Herve Moineau, Christian Lavielle and Michael Graziano were second in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The win in France went to Kawasaki France's Carl Fogarty, Terry Rymer and Michel Simul;ihe trio took the lead just before midnight and held on for the victory. Around the clock at Le Mans By Gary P inchin P hotos by Barrie L ynn LE MANS, FRANCE, APR. 25·26 week aft er winning the second World Ch ampionship Superbike Series race o f the year at England 's Donington Park o n hi s Ducati, Carl Fogarty took th e Le Mans 24 Hours, riding for Team Kawasaki France and partnered by fello w Brit T erry Rymer and Belgian Michel Simu \. They inherited the lead from the A 4 number one factory ZXR7 of Alex Vieira, Steve Hislop an d Jea n Louis Bat tisini just befor e mid n ig ht whe n World Champion Vieira pu shed hi s stric ken bik e in with a broken cam cha in. T he sole works Suzuki , ridde n by Herve Moineau , Christian Lavie lle and Michel Graziano, led for the first fo ur hours but twice had to p it wh en th e he ader p ipes fra ctured . Th ey fini shed second, fou r laps adr ift. Third was th e Nat ional Mor o s Honda, ridden by former Grand Prix rider Guy Bert in, Adrien Morillas and Ardn au d de Puniet, after a consistent, vi rt uall y tr oubl e free ride. Thei r biggest concern was lo ng pi t SlOpS replacing brake pads. Ca na dia n Mario DuHamel finished fifth ridin g a Fre nch T ea m 72Ca ssegrain Suzu ki G SXR750 wi th Belgian Michel Simeo n and Fren chman Patrice Perr in . America n Doug T oland and h is teammates, Swede Peter Linden and Frenchman Andre Lu ssian i, were desperat ely unlucky to lose fo urth p lace with just three hours 10 go. Linden cras hed whe n oil leaking from the gear box case go t o nto h is back tir e. The early stages of th e race, run in fro nt of 70,000 spec tators, foll owed a predi ctab le pattern wi th Moineau , wh o was fastest in practice, qu ickl y estab lish ing a heal th y lead for Suzuki with their new water-cooled factory bike. His task was made somewhat easi er when bo th factor y Kawasakis refus ed 10 fire up at the traditio na l Le Man s start. Vieira go t aw ay rnidpack while Fogarty was stone last. Fogarty, tho ug h , was soo n on the charge, clocking th e fastest lap in th e first hour with a o ne-min ute, 47. 14second tour o f the 2.75-mile Fren ch circui t. ''I'm glad it didn 't start, 10 be ho nest," said Foga rty. " 1£ I had got away second or third I might hav e been a bit nervous and made mistakes. Instead, I settled myself in and then started enjoying overtaking them al\. " Wh en Fogarty han ded over to teammat e Rymer after h is first stint, he had cu t Moineau 's ear ly 13 second lead to just three seco nds. Vieira was thi rd almost half a minute beh ind. In troub le early on was the Reflex Yamah a. Bruno Bonhuil pilied after o nly three laps to have a wat er leak fixed. A wate r pipe a -ring to an outside cylinder. had split. They lost five laps fillin g a new pipe and dropped from fifth to 41st. Also in th e pits in the first hour was Rachel Nicotte on the BiH R Honda. He had a scary moment when the rear brak e ca liper broke up. They lost six la ps repai ring th e damaged rear end and dropped from sixth 10 34th . T he pace car was in action for 15 mi nutes af ter o nly one hour wh en British rider Graham Ward lost th e Ph oenix Yam aha o n the brakes for the first chicane - giving Hi slop a scary mom ent. The facto ry rider was. lining up a pass when Ward cras hed. "The boy was rolling across the trac k right in front of me," sa id H islop. " I hadn 't adjus ted the brak e lever after taking over fro m Vieira. Wh en I went for it. nothing happen ed and I had to run across th e gravel trap to avo id the rider. " The Suzuki bu ilt a lap lead , helped no doubt by some slick p it work the SERT crew were tu rning their men around some 10 seconds quicker each sto p th an the Kawasaki team. Then at 6 p.m ., Moineau brought a ro ug h sou ndi ng Suzuk i into pi t lan e with a fractured head er pi pe whic h took six mi nutes (ap proximately th ree laps) to repl ace and dropped th em to fourth pl ace behind Vieira , Fogarty - who lost a lap 10 fix a loose fai ring bracket - and th e Nat ion al MOIOS Honda. At 8:45 p .rn., the Reflex Yam ah a was pushed in by Bruno Bonhuil but it was a wasted effort. T he Yam ah a had the number four co n-rod hanging out the bottom of th e cases. Last year's winning Le Mans team were a lready an 'a ba ndon'. After six h ours, the number one Kawasaki of Vieir a led by 44 seconds from Fogarty on the second ZXR 7. The factory Suzuki was third, still th ree lap s down wi th the National MOIOS Honda in fourth on the sam e lap . Fifth was the Godier Gen oud Kawasaki of Mouzin /Bonoris/Bu rgevan wit h Doug T oland sixth on 183 la ps with the Moto Spon Honda . Suddenly, at 11 :20, in th e sessio n foll owin g Hi slop's fastest lap of the race (a I:46.90 in th e darkl), the leading Kawasaki was mi ssing. Vieira was reported push in g in from Mu see and hi s race was over with a broken cam chain. That handed th e lead to the Fogarty Kawasak i but they were losing tim e so me thing lik e 1:30 - each time they changed brake pad s. Nevertheless, after nine hours they still held a o ne-la p lead o n the Suzuki. Behind th em , th e National Motos H onda was hippin g consistent ly, four laps do wn o n the leader in th ird pla ce. Mo uzin was fourth , eight lap s adrift and lost more time wh en he go t wiped o ut coming into th eir p it by Rymer, wh o was jelling back into th e race. T oland was fifth on the H onda. Mari o DuHam el' s Suzu ki team lost three minutes and dropped bri efly from eig h th 10 12th during the early hours of darkness wh en th e new had diff iculty fitting new front brake pads. But they got back into th e race and sett led into a cons istent gr oove that wo u ld later elevate them through the field. At half past mi dnight there was a big cras h at the Dunlop curve invo lving Flor ian Ferracci, J -r Damide and Christian Guyo t's Team Val de Marne H onda wh ich brought o ut the pace car. Wh en racing resumed a t five minutes to o ne, the Suzuki had just managed to unlap itself by cat ching the pace car at the right mom ent. Moineau, on slicks, and Rymer, on intermediates with a hint of rain falling (which came 10 nothing), went head-to-head with Rymer drafting past the Suzuki right in front of the packed grandstands in front of the pits - much to the chagrin of the local fans. But th e dice ended at just before 1:30 a.m. wh en th e Suzuki pitted with ano ther fractured head er pipe. This tim e they lost eight laps repl acing it, but pulled one lap back wh en Fogarty had to stop 10 replace his gear lever. Th e Suzuki st op ele va te d th e

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