Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE WORLD E NDURA NCE C AMPIONSH H IP Round 2: 24 Hours of Liege (Left) The 24 Hours of Liege gets under way. (Abo ve) Doug Polen, of the w inning Honda team, in ac tion. (Below) Polen (right) end teamates Christian Lavieille and William Costes celebrate their By Johan Vandekerckhove 46 SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM, JULY11-12 ole position, the fastest lap of the race, and a three-lap cus hion over the rest of the field when the race ended . Obvious ly, Christian Lavieille, Dou g Polen and Willia m Castes d id n't put a foot wrong on the scenic circuit of Fra ncorchamps during the 24 Hours of Liege . And, na tu rally, it was raining again ' in Belgium for most of the race, causi ng m a n y to d ro p ou t of th e classic end urance eve nt. In the end, only 42 ou t of 63 bikes las ted for the full 24 hours. The only real trouble for the numberth ree facto ry Hond a came during the warmup lap, w hen the team was forced to bring th e bik e on to pit lane with a stic king front brake . While th e o the rs w e re g rid d ed and the rid er s started their da sh to the other side of the track as the Belgi an flag waved: the Ho nda mechanics changed the mas ter cylinder on the RC45. It wa s wi th a d eficit of 1 1/ , laps that Willia m Costes finall y took to the tra ck on Honda's best hope for victory. Ka w asa ki' s champio nship-lead ing te a m of Bert r a n d Se b ileau, Jeh a n d'Orgeix an d Ian McP herson were promo ted to pole position due to Ho nda's troubles, but they di dn't profit much from their best. starting position. As the lights turned to green, a Belgian Suzuki and the factory Suzuki ridden by Terry Ryme r go t the ho leshot heading u p to the infamous Eau Rou ge chicane. The Belgian Suzuki wouldn' t last long at the front , with Michel Ni ckmans cra shing while tryi ng to avoid a slower rider d uring th e first cou p le of la p s. The team then lost an other 25 minutes in pit lane w hile unde rgoing repairs. After just a few la p s, Rymer an d Sebileau had sta rted thei r batt le for the lead . As exp ecte d , it w as the rid ers on wo rks machinery who would fight it out for the most points and the big trophy. For the first few hou rs, the Suzu ki was leadin g from th e Ka w as ak i a n d th e . Honda, who were onl y some two laps d own. At around 8 p.m ., Eri c Gomez gave away the lead . Just when Rym er was preparin g to sta r t h is s tin t, the a nno un cer bro u ght new s tha t Go mez had crashed at the back end of the circuit. With a seri ously damaged front wheel, Gomez had to walk back to pit lan e, confirming his team's retirem ent from the race. Sebil e a u an d hi s team m at es to ok over, hold ing a one-la p advantage over the Honda - which had been cured of its front-brake problems. Abou t an hour later, the dreaded rain started to fall over the hilly circuit, and things go t hectic in pit la ne wit h every bike coming in for rain tires. But none of this changed mu ch in the hierarchy: the Kawasaki stayed up fro n t, leading the factory Honda (still by a lap ) and a pri va te Honda (ridden b y Hofmann , Petrucciani and Kellen ber ger ), And th ings wou ld n' t cha nge m uc h during the nigh t. Most of the riders concentra ted on keeping their bikes upright in the treacherous cond itions, and with la p times a lot slower than in the dry, the engines we re not put to the test too much, either. Nevertheless, third -placed Pereira /Graziano/Trixeira, on a private Suzuki, lost one pos ition with brake-pad pr obl ems and seventh-placed Guyot/Lussiana /Scarnato had to give up the chase after a crash. Th e on ly p roblem fo r th e lea d ing Kawasaki was an u nexpected pit stop d ue to b ra ke problems. Bu t it d id n ' t cause the team to lose mu ch ground as Castes also lost some ti me in th e pit . wit h the team changing the radiator and gear-shift leve r after a mi nor crash. The Swiss Ho nda team p rofited the mos t from all of this, ta king the lead albeit it for only a few minutes. On Su nda y " m o rru n g . the lea d Kawasaki still circulated at the top of the charts, but only by one minute and 11 seco nds from the Ho nda . The thi rdpl a ced team - on th e Sw iss Hon d a we re already 11 laps behind. A s the rain co n tinu ed to fall , Kaw asaki' s lead started to get smaller and s m a ll er. At aroun d 10 a .rn . the Kawasaki wa s forced to pit with an exha ust proble m . Two hours later, their hopes we re definitely sha ttered w he n they lost a lot of tim e d ue to a broken chain. Forced to settle fo r second place, three laps behind the Hond a, they sti ll h ad 12 lap s over th e Su z uki o f Pereir a / G ra zia n o / Teixeira, w ho sa w . Bfief/y.:·:. ...:: : . '_ . ' . . For the first nme in motorcycle-racing history , . an .off icial Chinese team w as entered in an ' FIM ·sanctioned race . Unfortunately, only one of them. He Zi Xian, proved to be fast enough to qualify . But then again. they had read the rulebook caref ully and a French reserve rider,' who was able ,to start the race with the Chinese, qualified the bike. The enthusiasm of the · numero us Chinese Journalists ' was irnmense> until He Z i Xian crashed t he RC45 and des tro yed the gearbox in the process. Eve'n this didn't stop the team. The mechanics start - . ed to repair the bike an d - ElVen after havinq been ,eliminated fo r no t c omplet in g enough th em s elv es p romo ted fr o m fo u r th to third after th e retirem ent of H ofma nn / Petrucciani / Kell enberger. That team had already lost so me time in the early morning when their bike broke down just after lea ving the p it , w ith Pe tru cciani h aving to pu s h th e bike ba ckw ard , costi ng th em five p en alt y lap s. Problems wi th the cooling sys tem later in the race proved to be fatal. l~ 24 Hours of Li ege Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium Results: July 11-12, 1998 z z FINAL: 1. Laviei lle Po le n Cos te s ( Hon ); 2Se bilea u / Ma cP hc rson / O' Or ge ix (Kaw): 3. Pereira / G raz ia no / Te ixei ra (5uz ); 4. Sampson /Rees / N ow la nd ( Ka w ): 5. Eisen / Cu zin /Ca pe la (Kaw): 6. Fissette/ Iadoul / Kem pener (Suz): 7. Kuen zi/Rieder / emf (Kaw): 8. Lherbette ZLe b le nc / Bu ffa r d ( Ka w) : 9 .. Lind en l Ntcotte /Mizera (He n): to . Laurcnt/Lentaigne/ Girard ot (He n): 11. Ccing -Bclley /Dt Marino /Bron ec (Ya m); 12. Strauch /Roethigl Altschner (Suz) : 13. Van Achter/Va n Zweeden / Ve r bo ve n (5 uz); 14. G ranie /La ga m me / . Servais (Ka w ), 15. Destoop /Le Glati n/Gucri n (Hon) ; WORLD ENDU RANCE C'S HIP POINT STANDINGS (After 2 of 5 round s): 1. Scbileau (90); 2. d'Orgeix (80); 3. (TIE) Lavie ille /Polen (76); 5. (TIE) Paill ot / jerm an / Cos tes / Perei ra /Craz ia no /Teixiera (SO). laps - they started the race again on Sunday at 11 a.rn, Only the French rider had already gone home . At around noon. Zi Xian had to stop in order to have his obligatory period of rest. At 2 p.rn. .he re sum ed battle In o rder to get t o ' record a finish, completing 188 laps - 293 less than the winners . . . . As expected, Doug Polen was very enthusias tic abo ut t he effo rts the Fre nch Hond a importers team had put int o the race . "T he rain was an asset for 'us, because the RC45 has 's uc h a larg e po w e rb and and is so smooth,- Polen said. " You can limit the wheelspin t o a minimum and exploit the power w hic h is p ro bab ly a bit .less t han o n the , Kawasaki or the Suzuki ' in an optimal way: I don't like the rain, bull delivered the fast lap' times on a wet surface. " . .

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