Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128392
Suzuki Castr.'ol Takes Race, Title S uzuki Castrol's Vincent Philippe, Keiichi Kitagawa and Matthew l..Jlgrive won the Oschersleben 24 Hours round of the World Endurance Championship, August 13-14, and in doing so wrapped up the World Championship with one round remaining in the series. The Suzuki GSX-RIOOO-mounted trio topped the Kawasaki Bolliger team in Germany, with Kawasaki Diablo finishing third. The win gives the Suzuki Castrol team an insurmountable 45-point lead over Kawasaki Bolliger with just 25 points up for grabs in the final round of the series at VaJlelunga in Italy in September. From the start of qualifying, it looked as though the race would come down to a fourway battle between Suzuki Castrol, Yamaha Austria, Yamaha Phase One Endurance and Kawasaki Bolliger, with only Phase One and Yamaha Austria in a position to challenge Suzuki Castrol for the championship. The race itself was action-packed, with Suzuki Castrol and Yamaha Austria both crashing in oil in the opening 15 minutes of the race. Both riders were able to rejoin the race, but Suzuki Castrol's Philippe suffered an injured wrist in the crash. With the two fit Suzuki Castrol riders - Kitagawa and Lagrive - doing back-to-back sessions, both Yamaha Austria and Yamaha Phase One had the chance to pile the pressure onto the Suzuki team. While they could not match Suzuki's lap times, they could possibly force a mistake by the two overworked and tired riders. Yamaha Phase One paid the price of this blistering pace just before midnight, when its engine failed. Yamaha Austria held second place through the night, but a highside crash by Thomas Hinterreiter in his first session in daylight on Sunday morning left the bike unrideable. While all of this was going on, Kawasaki Bolliger and Kawasaki Diablo had been putting in consistent laps. The Bolliger bike made an unplanned stop to replace an exhaust system and another to change a leaking front fork, but otherwise the two Kawasakis ran a near-perfect race. Further down the field, Suzuki No Umits and RT Motor Team, Suzuki Bridgestone Bikers Profi and Suzuki Austria Team 76 all completed the race without major incident, the three teams finishing fourth through sixth. The Aprilia Motociclismo Test team, meanwhile, finished seventh on what is basically still a stock motorcycle. "It's strange to win the World Championship with a broken hand," Philippe Get the Lead Out Through independent lab testing conducted on behalf of Kawasaki, it was determined that the trace amounts of lead found in the team's fuel supply following the AMA Motocross event at Budds Creek, Maryland, came from the team's DOT-approved steel gas cans, according to a release issued by the team last week. '~fter careful scrutiny into the type of materials used for the cans, the team discovered that the manufacturer of the cans used a lead-based solder to seal the seams and filler neck of the cans," the release states. '~ a result, the lead leaked into the fuel, causing it to fail the AMA fuel tests. According to the fuel-can manufacturer, all storage cans produced after 2004 no tonger contain the lead-based solder." According to the release, Kawasaki has since replaced their fuel storage and deliv- ery systems. "The team will also continue to use the same type of racing fuel produced by VP Racing Fuels and is certain that VP's production processes were not the cause of the contamination," according to the release. "We are very pleased to come to the bottom of this," said Mike Fisher, Kawasaki's motocross team manager. "VP Racing Fuels are leaders in the industry, and we appre- ciate their support through this process. We did several tests on the fuel and the new cans and we are confident that the results of our findings have determined the source of the lead contamination." 10 AUGUST 24, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS said after the race. "It's good that I have ridden in the race. I had a lot of pain, but I did fIVe relays, so I am happy. I don't think it is possible to be World Champion If I don't ride at every race, so I am very happy." Kitagawa, meanwhile, became the first japanese rider to win a World Endurance Championship. "First of alii would like to thank the team. I've really enjoyed working with them and the other riders," Kitagawa said. ''I'm the first Japanese World Endurance Champion, so I'm Janniro To Miss Speedway Nationals AHA Sports has announced that speedway racer Billy janniro will have to withdraw from the AHA NatiooaI Championship Series due to scheduling conflicts. Janniro, one of the pre-series favorites to win the tide, is disappointed to miss this year's series but vows to rerum rext year and win his first AHA National Championship. The conflict arose because the dates for the series were different when Janniro signed his letter of intent to compete in the series. Janniro's team, the Coventry Bees, are in the middle of a playoff chase in the British Elite League, and rounds one and two of the series c0nflict with three criticaJ league meetings that janniro has over that weekend. AHA Sports director Ken Saillant expressed his disappoinonent with the sitwtion but also understood. ''We're going to miss Billy Janniro in the NatiooaI Championship Series:' Saillant said. ''We felt releasing him from his obligation to race in the series was the right very pleased. Some of my fans have come over from japan. It's their first time in Europe, and they have really helped to motivate me during the race." Marcel Kellenberger helped put Kawasaki Bolliger second in the race, and he realized the team had capitalized on other's miscues to finish in the runner-up spot. "Qualifying was not so bad for us, and we did nearly the same times in the race," he said. "We also had a lot of luck when the other teams had some problems, so the race was very good for us." thing to do since the dates were changed after he signed his letter of intent. We look forward to Billy competing next year." Nate Perkins will replace janniro in the field of seeded riders. Perkins, in his first full season in First Division, has won a Scratch main at Industry Hills and a Handicap main at Auburn in California. Additionally, 1995 junior National Champion Jimmy Fishback will replace Perkins in the qualifying round. Fishback returned to speedway this year and has qualified for the Scratch main on more than one occasion at Industry Hills this season. This year is the fourth year of the AMA National Championship Series and will consist of three rounds. Fast Fridays, located at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn, California, will host round one on Friday, September 3. The Grand at the Industry Hills Expo Center in Industry Hills, California, will host round two the next night and round three will return to Fast Fridays on Saturday, October 8.