Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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eROAD RACE Series: Final round ~ Fast-starter Stephane Mertens (15 ) leads Christian Lavielle and Domi nique Sarron early in the Bol d'Or 24-hour endurance race. Sarron led his Suzuki-mo unted team to victory. S zu w Tolandcrow edat Bol d'Or u ki ins n , -------------------~~---------~------------------------------------ By Johan Vandeckerhove LECASTELLET, FRANCE, SEPT. 19 ominique Melland, team manager of the Su zuki Endurance Racing Team (S.E.R.T.), has been trying to win the Bol d'Or since 1984. The classic endurance race is usually held a week befo re the o pen ing of the P aris Motorcycle Show, a nd a vic to ry a t Le Castellet circui t can pay high dividends when it comes to selling motorcycles in Europe. Tha t long-awaite d win finally came in the 57th running of the race, w it h Do m in iq u e Sa rron, Jean-Marc Deletang and Brun o Bonh uil combining to bring the team a victory which cou ld possi bl y p reven t Suzu ki fro m w ithd raw in g its s uppor t fo r th e World En d ura nce Ch a m p ionship Series in future years. For Herve Moineau, however, this Bol d 'Or (the Golden Cu p) ended in disappo intment. The multi-tim e World Endu rance Champion never had it his way on the track which is only some 30 m iles from his home. But he wasn ' t alone. None of the seven official teams (fro m Suzuki, Kawasaki and Du cati) could pr event the World Championship fro m going to a n Ame rica n privateer. California n Dou g To la nd crossed the line in sixth positio n, giving the United States its firs t-ever World Endu rance Championship. Ducati man aged to make headlines in France and in Italy during the weeks leading up to the Bol d'Or. Raymond Roche, who also lives near the track, had tried to convince the Castiglione brothers (the owner s of Ducati /Cagiva) to send a few offi cia l bikes to the endurance event, reminding them of the D 10 fine performance they had shown there two years before and of the considerable commercial im pact their showing up would have on the French market. Only a few weeks before official pr actice was sched uled to begin, the racing department in Bologn a wa s given the green light and three bikes were prepared for the event. Strangely enoug h, the choice of rider s was mad e even later. Th ing s progressed when Eraldo Ferracci decided to send his two AMA Superbike Series riders, Dou g Polen and Pascal Picot te, to join Stephane Mertens on one of the b ikes . Th e seco nd bike w as to be manned by Simon Crafa r, Fred Merkel and Florian Ferracci, and the third team (run by Roche) was composed of two you ng French riders, Philippe Mouchet and Chris ty Reb utti ni, and a French journalist, Bertrand Sebileau. Plane tickets were pu rc hased , ho te l ro o ms re s e r ved an d , only on th e Mo nd a y before the race, three engines were pu t into chassis and transported to sou thern France. Dou g Polen was to be one of the ma in "victims" of the Ducati's lack of pre, race testing. Firs t of all, the Texa n ran into troub le du rin g tech inspection because of a lack of headlights, then later on he was stopped halfway aroun d the circuit because of a stuck fron t suspension. And finall y, the fro n t ax le brok e. His teammate Mertens had given the mechanics even more work when he crashed on one of his first practice laps when he hit oil spilled by one of the factory Kawasakis. America'sother World Cham ion When the word s "World Champ ion Doug Toland" are sp ok en , mo st race watchers will be quick to point out an error. "You mean Doug Polen, don't you?" Well, not an y more. Doug Toland is indeed 'a World Champion after wrapping up the World Endurance Championship with his sixth-place finish in the Bol d'Or, the final round of the series. "Frankly, I wouldn't have dreamed of becoming the new champ," the 31-year-old Toland said after the race. "At the beginning of the season, 1 was quite happy to find that the French Moto Bike team was offering me a ride for Le Mans and for the Bol d'Or, At Le Mans, the first race of the year, we ran into engi ne trouble. A few weeks later the British Phase One endurance team contacted me to ride the ra ce s a t An d e rs to r p (Sw ed e n ) and SpaFrancorchamps for them. We finished fourth in Sweden and we won in Belgium. "For the eight-ho ur race at Suzuka, I was drafted in at the last possible moment as a reserve rider for the Moriwaki team . But even then I didn't start coun ting points. The oppos ition was going to be very tough at the Bol, with some seven factory bikes and my main rivals - official Kawasaki riders Brian Morrison and Wilfrid Veille - on a separate bike, in order to reduce the risks of losing the title to a minimum. "It was only after the retirem ent of the second Kawasaki that we reall y became aware that the title was within reach. I mu st say that lowe a lot to my team. Despite the big imp ortance of this race (Bol d'Or) for a French team, they sacrificed a possible rostrum finish to race at a slower pace during the last quarter of the race. The sixth place proved to beenough to give me more points than 'all the factory guys and I won . .. ' the championship." . The Buena Park, California resident is hoping tha t this title might open some doors for him in the next couple of months. "Ho nestly, given my age, I don't think that, this result will earn me a ride on a Grand Prix bike," Toland said. "However, 1 would be very happy if I got the opportunity to do a whole season of World Superbike racing. I have some experience with superbikes, having run in the Vance & Hines and Yoshimura teams (in AMA racing). Maybe I'll take on the Ducatis next year ...rr