Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE . World endUrance CllampionsNp Series Round 5: The 801 d'Or interrupted for the fust time. At around 11:55 p.m., racing journalist Bertrand Sebileau and Serge Vieira had crashed into each other; Sebileau was unhurt, but Vieira was taken to hospital in a coma, with several broken bones in his legs and hips and with internal bleeding. With debris and oil covering a distance of some 600 feet, the organizers decided to bring out the red flag. At that moment, Rymer was leading in front of Morillas (on the same lap), Vieira, Gomez, Mattioli and Garcia. Two hours later the first restart was attempted, with - strangely enough - the riders being released on the track in two groups, each time behind a pace car. The second "heat" didn't last very long. One hour after the hostilities had ... resumed, the rain came down again in impressive quantities. Guyot crashed in the rain, losing his grip on the fight for first-privateer honors as the team dropped from seventh to 13th. At 3:50 a.m., however, things went wrong for the first time in the leading Suzuki team. "A little mishap on my part and miscommunication in the team as to when exactly I could start again," Polen said. "Too bad, because without that, we could have won the race." What happened was simple. After a pit stop, the former two-time World By Johan Vandekerckhove : LE CASTELLET, FRANCE, SEPT. 21-22 ndurance is French for stamina, but thanks to the 60th edition of the Bol d'Or, it also may be translated as French for stubbornness. Despite the heavy rainfall and the dangers that came with it, two restarts and the five interventions of pace cars, it took the organizers 23 hours before they decided to bring out the red flag for the final time and stop the race. By that time, the fight for the world title had long been decided. Brian Morrison, who had been in dire straits after his teammate crashed in the second hour, was almost certain of the title when Stephane Coutelle, his only other rival, ran into mechanical trouble. The race itself was won by Alex Vieira, Christian Lavieille and William Costes, the Honda-mounted trio triumphing in front of abandoned grandstands with must of the spectators getting rained out during the night. Second place went to the Suzuki team of Terry Rymer, Doug Polen and Peter Goddard, with Juan-Eric Gomez, Frederic Protat and Damon Buckmaster riding another Suzuki GSXR750 to third. BOLO'OR As so often in the Bol d'Or, only a few riders could keep their leg muscles under control when the French flag was waved Saturday at 3 p.m for the Le Mans-style start. The Ducati of Philippe Mouchet and the Honda of Lavieille got the holeshot, but it was Brit Jamie Whitham leading the whole gang at the end of the first lap. Two laps later, Rymer took over command while Piergiorgio Bontempi - on OI~e of the two Kawasakis - stole the hearts of the 70,000 spectators, drifting his ZX7R through the comers, }eaving black traces of rubber behind him. Fifteen minutes into the race, the first problems surfaced for the factory bikes: the Yamaha of Mahe/Rachel Nicotte/ (Above) The 60th edition of the Bol d'Or gets under way at Paul Ricard. (Right) William Costes teamed with Alex Vieira and Christian Lavlellle on a Honda RC45 to win the 24-hour race. Jean-Louis Battistini lost half an hour when the team had to drain the complete cooling system to replace a fitting. More or less at the same time, Dave Goodley crashed the Phase One Endurance-Kawasaki, condemning himself to a ZD-minute push back to the pit lane. The team would later continue to struggle with electrical problems, more than likely due to the crash. After an hour of racing, the first Suzuki strengthened its lead over the other factory riders. At 4 p.m., Rymer / Polen/ Goddard had a one-lap lead over both the Kawasakis of Jehan d'Orgeix / Morrison / Bontempi and Coute1le/Steve Hislop/Florian Ferracci. In the second hour, the title battle was thrown wide open again when d'Orgeix crashed his bike for what appeared to be unexplainable reasons on the long Mistral straight. Afterward, a reason was given: the rear wheel axle of the brand-new ZX-7R had broken, likely due to mechanical error during the fust pit stop. D'Orgeix escaped unscathed, but the bike was too heavily damaged to continue the battle. For his teamma te Morrison, the race now started for real. In theory, he could still be passed by Stephane Coutelle (on the other Kawasaki) in the point standings. But that danger vanished almost completely when the Frenchman felt his Kawasaki die at the end of his second tum on the back side of the circuit due to an empty fuel tank. Coutelle managed to push the bike back to the pits in only ZO minutes, but the team still dropped from second to 18th because of the problem. But it wasn't just Kawasaki that showed that its pocket calculators didn't properly determine fuel consumption as Adrien Morillas/ Rene Deltang/ Whitham also ran into similar problems with the fuel. Fortunately, they were able to nurse it back to the pits. After five hours of racin& Rymer/Polen/Goddard were leading with one lap to spare over the second Suzuki of Gomez/Protat/Buckmaster, the Honda of Vieira/Lavieille/Costes, the Yamaha of Morillas / Deltang / Whitham and the first private bike of Jean-Michel Mattioli/Michel Simeon/ Guigou three laps down, but heavily involved in a battle for privateer team honors with another Honda ridden by Christophe Guyot/ Andre Lussiana/ Mounier. As night fell over the sou th of France, the heavens opened ever wider, and made life for the riders even more difficult than usual. After Vieira survived some near crashes due to a slowly defla hng front tire, things started to' move around in the top 10. As the rain got heavier, Coutelle's Kawasaki and Mahe's Yamaha started to get closer to the top 10. At around midnight, the race was Superbike Champion was in too much of a hurry to get back in action, leaving the pit before the rear wheel had been securely fastened. With the Texan storming away, the swingarm snapped. The part was replaced in 15 minutes, but the team that had led since the start of the event was now thrown five laps behind Vieira's Honda and Mori1las' Yamaha (who were on the same lap), with Gomez' Suzuki taking over third place. For Whitham, the suspense also was a bit too much. In an effort to try to get the lead, he crashed, managing to get the bike back to the pit, but losing two laps while the team replaced the fairing, shift and brake levers. Later, the Englishman learned that he'd broken his wrist, forcing him out of the race and pushing his teammates into extra duty. Ferracci also went down, relegating the Kawasaki team to 17th. At around 6:30 a.m., the weather gods once again got involved and there was so much water on the track that it h,!-d become too dangerous to continue and the race was stopped for the second time. While a large portion of the spectators had packed up and left in the pour-

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