Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

The winning Kawasaki team celebrates its victory. (Irom left to right) Thierry Paillot, team manager Christian Bourg~ois, Igor Jerman and Bertrand Sebileau. point, the second Suzuki, ridden by Coutelle, got into trouble.. First the bike lost oil, then it went into the pits, and then it crashed a few laps later - throwing the Suzuki back to sixth. Small problems also continued to bother the works Honda of Lavieille/Polen/Lucchiari. This tinle, they lost some ground due to a prolonged pit stop to fix a front-brake-pad problem. Now the top six had changed somewhat. The two Kawasakis were still firmly in command, but now the Yamaha of Deletang held on to third, ahead of Lavieille's Honda and CouteUe's Suzuki. The other Suzuki was not spared either: Brian Morrison, as well as Rymer, crashed and lost even more ground. Contrary to many previous editions, the early-morning hours didn't offer much suspense, even though the riders complained about the slippery track as morning broke. At around 8 a.m., however, the leading number-11 Kawasaki was involved in a massive crash thanks to oil on the track, Jehan d'Orgeix managed to push the bike back to the pit lane, but 11 minut~s . and first place· was lost. Due to the intervention of the pace cars, the advantage of the new leader - the other Kawasaki - was limited to three laps, Only then did things liven up again. Even though Kawasaki team manager Christian Bourgeois advised his riders to hold their positions and not to take any risks, keeping positions was becoming more difficult now as rain had started to faU, Then they were forced to pit to exchange slicks for full rain tires. For the number-11 Kawasaki, this was the time to charge. Bontempi and his teammates gained several seconds per lap on the leading Kawasaki and, with 90 minutes to go, Bontempi once again took over the lead - claiming what he had fought for since the first lap, Unfortunately, things would not turn out well for the Italian. Going into the final hour, the exhaust system on the leading Kawasaki started cracking, and they were forced to pit to have the system fixed· losing their lead again and their last cllance to take the victory. "This is my first time at this race," said Igor Jerman. "At the start, I did not have a clue of how hard it was going to be - stringing so many laps together, But next time, I will be better prepared," For Bontempi, secohd place was a bitter disappointment. The Italian super· bike rider could only thank his team for their efforts, His fastest race lap' was a meager consolation, Thirty-four teams from 56 starters crossed the finish line, with 33 of them being classified (the last one not having covered 75 percent of the winner's race distance), ,~ 24 Hours 01 Le Mans Le Mans, France Results: April 18-19, 1998 1. Sebileau/PaillotlJerman (Kaw); 2, Bontempi/ Lavilla/D'Orgeix (Kaw); 3. Del~tang/Lindholml Jeandat (Yam); 4. Lavieille/Polen/Lucchiarj (Hon); 5. Loutelle/Dobe/Vanden Bossche (Suz); 6. Guyot/ Lussiana/SCiJrnato (Kaw), 7. Pereira/Graziano/ Teixi'eira (Sux); 8. Gomez/Rymer/Morrison (Suz); 9. Charpentier IStey /Dussaugc (Hon); 10. RobertI Loustalet/Charle--Artigues O(aw); 11. CabrielilBronec/ Schneider (Yam); 12. Neff/Herfort/Morillon (Kaw); 13. Carrara/Pochon/Desmaris (Suz); 14. Destoo'p/ Guerin/Boutin (Hon); 15. }olivet/Cherrureau/Subias (Suz); 16. Chapuis/Rothig/Sebrich (Suz); 17. Cornillet/Picaut/Basle (Hon); 1&. Linden/Nicotte/ Mizera (Hon); 19. Donischa.1/Foret/Paululs (Yam); 20. Bousseau/Parthiot/Colombain (Suz); 21. Guittet/ Guinand/Venturini (Kaw); 22. Auger/julien/Roy (S.uz); 23. Muller/ Arrighi/Pecastaing (5uz); 24. Bondu/Parage/Cun'y (Hon); 25. Guilard/Relou/Le Badezet (Kaw); 26. Di Marino/Coing·Belley/ Aubry (Yam); 27. "Levrel/Verdeil/Jouvencel (Kaw); 28. Girardot/Laurent/Caille (Hon); 29. Tauziede/ jond/}ond (Due); 30. Popot/ Amani-jollan/Mesdagh (Kaw); 31. Dieuleveult/Gilles/Labussi~re (Kaw); 32. }auloeau/Parisse/Guezennec (Suz); 33. Despoix/ Almet/Larroucau (Duc), Upcoming Rounds: Round 2 - TBA, England, June 28 Round 3 - Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, July 12 Briefly._·_ _------,-------,---,~. Some two weeks before the start of the race, it looked as if the six factory ·teams would boy· cott the first round of the 1998 World Endurance' Championship. A recent regional decree had 'stated that the fuel for the race bikes had to be put in underground containers; and the organizing ACO had refused to fill the containers with the 'special FIM '98 fou'r·stroke fuel that had been c!evel9ped for the factory bikes. The Honda. team had' tried' to use the Elf'ATU '97 fuel., which had 'been chosen by the organizers to be used by all the teams, but that. had caused several problems - clogging up t~e fuel inJectors,' One week before the first praotice. day, the local government,. a representative of the French sports ministrY, .Elf, ACO, the official team managers and a repre: sentative of the privateer te8Jl,'ls met for a final meeting and came up with a satisfying' com pro- . mise, allowing the six faptory bikes (and 11 privateer teams 'who 'had made a request beforehand) to use the special fuel. with the other riders using the ATU '97 fuel. Elf took charge of emptying; filling up and cleaning the underground containers for' the special FIM '98 fuel. This special fuel· was priced at some .11 Francs ($2) a liter and was developed. to wiihstand the high compression' rates of the engines in' the factory. bikes. I 'So~e might have. been surprised to see 'Doug' Polen aboard a'. Honda RC45. ~g'ain after his'. somewhat disappointing season with the official Castrol Honda World Superbike. team a few ) years ago: ': During the winter, I called. Suzuki in .Japan first." Polen said: "The French SERT team of manager Dom'inique Meliand, who is in charge of the endurance: program for the European races, \vanted me to ride for him, but things didn·'t work out in Japan. Then I called Honda in Japan, but they weren't interested. Burthe French team who did the Bol d'Or were happy to , accominodate me .. I expected the race to be difficult· but:apparently, the RC45 has come a long' rway sin'ce I raced it. in the World Superbike Champioriship.. It still isn't perfect, and we definitely , nfled more horsepower, but it's okay ~ just expect to see some great stuff from this bike in Spa. All in all. Iwas impressed also.by the Michelins.," . .. j .' . As always, there were. some ·I~st.~inute changes to' the teams: ' with s9me riders' g~tting injure? in. the weeks leading up to French cla.ssic. Gregorio Lavilla repl,aced Ian McPherson after " ~team manager Christian 'Bourgeois 'saw the Spaniar.d taking fourth position on the World Super. 1bikE! grid at Donington Park a few days earlier.. Jean.Philippe Jeandat replaced Christophe Cogan, )who'slJffered a broken Done in hi's hand during pr",ctice for the Supersport race .at Donington. !rCogan's original teammate, Jean-Marc Deletang, was fortun~te that iNheri his truck'ca.ught fire on the way to Donington Park, his mechanl.cs were able to put out the fire' before it reached his )':famaha s , u p e r b i k e s , ' , r'

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