Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

A short w hile later , Ducati lost its 916 ridden by Crine, Ferracci and Guigou with a broken crankcase. And as the leading Kawasaki continue d to lead, the others had problems: Yamaha (handli ng d ilemma s ), Suzu ki a n d Hond a (both wi th brake tro uble) lost a lot of time in the pits. With most of the top riders hitting trouble, the top fiv e hadn 't changed much at the halfway mark and the ord er read : Rymer, Moineau , Vieira, Morillas, Bertin. Yamah a 's probl em s co ul d n ' t b e cu re d and the team was in for a long ra ce : "T h is will not be an easy race," expl ained Adrien Morillas.: "The re a r shock s p ri ng comes loose eve ry time, which means th at the bike is very hard to rid e at the end of eve ry tum. We lose at least two or three seconds per lap in the la st la p s before we go back to (Above) Juan-Eric Gomez (2) and the factory Suzuki finished second; Gomez teamed with Herve Moineau and Christian Lavieille. (Left) Jean-Marc Deltang rode a Yamaha, along with Adrien Morillas and Denis Bonorls, to third place. (Below) Bruno Bonhuil led the Kawasaki team to a fourth-place finish. change riders, and in th e pit lane we lose some more time when the mechanics try to re adjust the sp ri ng." Before Muscat had bitten the dust, the other Yamaha wa s su ffering from the same problems. . A small shower just after 3:00 a.m. on Sunday creat ed so me p anic in the p it lane, but a half-hour lat er an d th ings were dry. Two hours later, things reall y got m essed up w ith so me top teams. First of all, Protat (Bertin's and Da vid 's teammate ) crashed, losi ng several la ps and positions in the process. Then, JeanLou is Battistini crashed th e lea ding Kawasa ki in the fast chicane af ter the sta rt/ finish line. " I w as d own be fore I kne w w h a t had h it m e," th e soft-spoken Fre nc h m an said. " It is o nly afte r th e d ust h ad disappeared th at I suspected a broke n fro n t b ra ke di sc. This was co nfi rmed la te r by my m ech an ics . Bu t with m e pretty sh aken u p and th e bike a total loss, we had no other possibility than to retir e." With eight more hou rs to go, the battle fo r victory wa s wi de o pen again, with Vieira's Honda and Moineau' s Suzuki onl y secon ds apart. M oriIIas, meanwhile, was tw o laps behind w ith Bonhuil / Manley / Holden, the firs t privateer team on the Pha se One Kawasaki, already 14 laps behind. Unfortunately, the duel for the lead wouldn't last until th e very end . Just as Suzuki's lead seemed to hold stead fast at 25 seconds, an unplanned pit stop at around 10:00 a.m, took more time than expected. "I felt the bike lose power," Moineau said, "and 1 preferred to stop at the pits instead of trying to en d my turn and risking to break down at the back of th e circuit." Th e mechanics checked th e. battery before d iscovering a problem with th e alternato r (a common problem for th e Suzuki). The change took more than sixand-a-half minutes, and it push ed th e team ba ck to th ird place - just behind the Yamaha of Morillas. Ha lf an hour later, th e Suzuki m oved back in to sec o nd wi th Jean-Marc Del tang crashi ng the Yamaha. Deltan g rode the bike back to th e pit lane, but ~e team lost 10 minutes and second p lace while checking the b ik e and clea ning the gravel out of it. Fo rtu nately, this would be th e last im portant ch ange in the top positions. Some four hours before the end the top-. five posi tions were se t, with Vieira winning fro m Moin eau, Mori llas, Ma nl ey an d Costes . Th e victory was Honda's ninth at Le Mans and they'd also established a new 24-h o u r di stan ce re cord of 764 a laps /2098.0S miles. 24 Heures du Mans Le Mans, France Resu lts : April 16, 1995 1. Vieira /Nicotte /Morrison (Han); 2. Moineau l Lav ieill e / Com ez (Suz); 3. Morillas / Deltang / Bonori s (Yam); 4. M anl ey /Hold en /Bonhuil (Kaw); 5. Cas tes ! Ve ille I Miz er a (Ha n ); 6. Ma ttioli I Simon I Mer te n s (Hon) ; 7. Ber ti n I Pr a ta t l Dav id (Hon); 8. Perin I Aerts/Rolland (Suz); 9. Tra no is /Van den Bossc he r Grazia no (Ya m); 10. Mo uchet /Cha mbon /Mou nier (Du e); 11. Schdtko/Seefeldt/Boner (Kaw ~ 12. Amalri el Monne re t/Sciberras (Han) ; 13. Cai lle /Coula ngcs / Schmal tz (Ho n); 14. Beltzung /B ou s scau /Hubrech t (5 uz); 15 . Rous s e t / Sandri / Cou tu ri e r (Hon) ; 16 . Dobe /Guinand/Cavanez (Kaw); 17. Treffort /Lethin l Leblanc (Hon); 18. l.,elevre /ColIecchia/Lelan (Kaw); ·Brieflv·...· . . . ... ~ II's no secret that Kawasa ki and Suzuki have dominated endurance racing in the last couple of years. The ZXR and GSXR are the mos t developed endurance bikes. aro und ·and. at the same time, they are also the oldest bikes on the track and are sched uled to · be replaoed by new models at the end of the season. Thus . modifications on the bikes were· minor this year, The main work at Kawasak i had been don·e on tne chassis, with the add lt lon - of a new fro nt whee l change system which dropped the whee l· · cha nge time from 12 seconds to .eight. In . ano the r move to .s ave time in the pits , a newly developed braking syslem ·was used ,. using brake pads that last for.the whole race and easier-to-rep lace discs made from a bet-. ler wea ring material. Engine-wise, a new carburetion ktthas been used in an effort at lowering fue l consumption, and Ihe cnances ' a llowed the Kawasa ki to run ex tra la ps .be·twe e n fuel stops . ·The frna l cha ng e involved som e m inor tun ing .to .give tn e ·engine more midrange torque. 19. Mon ot /Manot /Ma rcha nd (Suz ); 20. Rou sseeu x / Destoop / Fonta ine (Hon) . Ti me: 23 hours, 59 minut es. 23.90 seco nds Dis tance: 764 laps, 2098.05 miles. Aver age Speed; 87.47 mph. Fastes t lap : Rym er l Battistini / d'Orgeix, 1:46.35/92.973 mph. Upcoming rounds: Rnd 2 -Assen, Holland. April 30 And 3 - Spa Frnncorchamps, Belgium , July 15-16 Firially; ·Neil TUxWorth (the team manager for the Castrct Honda World Superbike team). suggested we get in touch wtth Brian.Morrison {the '93 l e Manswinner).".The.Scot, who had not anticipated.racing in.France, hurried . back to England.jusl after the 24-hour race in . order 10 compete in a nanon atTriurnpn race on Easter M~day. o . . Even tI)ough no top riders weie hired to ride the Ducati 916s of the SIMA team (financed by the French sponsor), the two bikes were .official machines and we re followed very clos el y by. two Ital ian engineers trom . Bologna. Apartfrom the tra.ditional endurance modlflcations (fuel tank, wider-spaced front - Jorks, etc .) the main engine chan ges con cerned a different rev tirnlter {tO,SOO revs ' maximum' instead of the 12.000 rpm used in superbike trim) and a more limited compregl · sion ratio (11.2:1). The French importer. Ma·r cel &lurat. had spent a nerve-wracklnq few weeks betore the event: First ofalt, threeof his six riders had crashed seriously during a French nationalrace and; on top of that. the second faclory bike arrived only ·10 days belare ttie race. Duringthe raceweekend, a broke n crankcase . s idelined one bike and ., . several minor problems forced the second , Simon Crafar missed his chance to win the . bike back to 10th place. : prestigious Le Mans.race when he informed : Honda France two weeks before the event For the·first time'in e~dura:nce history, a race that hewould not be available: "Due to spon- '. will be run,in two heats . The As senSlx soring incompatibilities, Simon had to refuse . Ho urs, scheduled for April 30, Is the first our offer," Honda's .Iean-Louis Guillou said. event 10 be run in acCordancewithIhis recent "First of ail, we· tried to get Miguel DuHamel Change in·the sporting regulations. With this to' ride for us . vbut .his manage·r (Ata n" tormat , the organiz ers hope to be able to' Labrosse) wanted us to pay about three . offer two short spnnts instead 01 one long times. 'amount we·pay our other riders. . ' the . . . . . ". - ' endurance. test. . 0 ". -

• Cover