Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

... \0 H Q) ~ o ..... u o In a rare endurance race outing. tw o-time World Superbike Champion Doug Polen tri es to pass Ch ristian Lavielle at Paul Ricard• Two of the Kawasaki engines expi red during practice while the other factory bikes (from Suzu ki and Ducati) d id n' t run in to any mor e tro uble, apa rt from those " mi nor" in cid en ts s u ffered by Polen . The tw o-time World Superbike Champion , who was racin g in his first 24-hour race at Le Castellet, was enjoying himself while turning in his usually quick lap times. "The 1.8 km-long (1.1 miles) Mistral straigh t is some thing, and especia lly the long comers after it," said Polen. "Th ose have to be negotia ted wi th the u tm ost caution, especially a t night. But I'm not too worried. I got used to the Michelin tires pretty quick, and during warm-up. I went faster than anybody else. Still, the rev limi ter o f thi s bike is se t a t so me 10,800 revs ins tea d of 12,500 as on the Superbikes . With th is se t up, the bike migh t go a very long way." Th ing s w e re even be t te r in the Suzuki team. Moineau had turned in a one- mi n u te, 59.72-second lap (using a qu a lify ing engine) , th e first time an end urance bik e ci rcula ted u nd er th e two-minute barrier. This earne d he and his tea mma tes Ch ristian Lavieille and Michel Graziano th e pole position for the race. They led the factory Kawasaki of Te r ry Rymer, Brian Mo rrison and De nis Bonoris, the fi rs t Du cati w ith Merkel, the second Kawasaki team consist ing of Piergio rgio Bontempi, JeanLoui s Battisti ni an d Wilfrid Veil le, and the second Du cati rid d en by Mertens, Polen and Picotte. The official Suzuki ridden by Sarron, Deletang and Bonhuil, ended up w ith the seven th fastest time, whil e th e third Du cati was e ighth fastes t. The p rivat eer Honda of Swede Peter Linden, Fren ch ma n Andre Lussia na and Toland had to be happy with 21st pla ce on the gri d. The Ducati team migh t not have ha d the most experienced mechanics in the race, but their d ecision to let Mertens, Simon Craf a r a nd Philippe Mouchet start the event proved to be very fruitful. Mertens, a fast runner, got to his bike first when th e light turned green, and he led the pack to the first set of corners. Mertens was follow ed by the tw o other red V-tw in s. The Ducati reign w ould last for a fe w co rners before Moineau took command. Meanwhile, Toland had already lost . Fren chman Dom inique Sarro n and hi s teammates Jean-Marc Deletang and Bruno Bonhuil gave Suzuki its long-await ed win. one of his main ch am pionship ri vals. The German team, with Konrad Sch ittko, had to b ury the ir tit le amb itions after only on e lap, wh en their privateer Kawasaki wen t to the pits with wha t turned out to be a term inal pis ton problem. It wa s only late a t nigh t tha t the team memb ers foun d the courage to pack everything up and go to sleep, w ith the wo rld titl e now out of th e ir reach. During the second hour of the race, the top teams ran into their first problems: Merkel's Ducati lost three minutes in the pit s du e to a malfun ction ing tail lig h t. At th at time, Moineau was s till lead ing in fro nt of Polen 's Du cati , the seco n d Suzuki a nd the Kawasa ki manned by Ry m e r. The seco nd Kawasaki had already lost so me time aft er Bontem p i d iscovered an oil leak after only five laps . At a 5:45 p.m., the Ducati mechanics were in for another unexp ect ed inter- ve ntion: Picotte carne in with a broken clutch. The faulty piece was rep laced in 10 minutes, an d they re-en tered the race tr ac k in 15 th place . One hour later, Crafar was headed for the pits - on foot. Th e eng ine in his Ducati ha d s top ped running; fortunately, it was only a miscalculation on fuel consumption and not a blown engi ne : Tha t bike returned to the heat of the figh t almos t immediately after taking on more fue l. At nightfall the positions seemed to 11

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