Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Endurance Championsh ip R o u n d 6 : B o l d 'Or Endurance racing makes for crowded podiums. This on e was no ex cept ion. The fact ory Yamaha team (cent er) had th e most to celebrate. "As an engineer and a team manager, w hat pleases me most i s t h a t we didn 't just win the t itle, but we finished every sing le r a c e inside t h e top 10 - even Suzuka ," said Rus se ll Ben - Shop 35 (Kaw ); 6 . M+? Phase One (Suz); 7 . T eam 22 Police Nationale (Kaw); 8. Bolliger Team (Kaw); 9 . Zongshen Team (Hen); 10. National Motos (Han ) ; 11 . End uranc e Moto 38 .( Yarn); 12 . Ma gasins P. Salle s/ Ecole Performance (Suz); 13. Chomat Moto (Hon); 14. PS Team -Eb ert-Heu ch erner (Yam ) ; 15. Schafer Motorsport·Saarloui s (Suz) . WORLD ENDURANC E C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Pet er Lin den /W arw ick Nowland ( 117 ); 3 . Chri stoph e Guyot/ Nicola s Du ssaug e/ Seba stien Sca rna to ( 1 12 ); 6 . Stephan e M er ten s ( 1 10 ); 7 . Arnaud Van Den Bc ssche/C hrlstlan Laviel le (6 5) ; 9 . Herbert Graf/ Anton Heiler/Marcel Kellenberger (63 ). ney , a delighted t eam boss from th e eN Phase one outfit. C ircuit Magny Cours Magny Cours, F rance Results: September 17, 2000 FINA L: 1. Yamaha Mot or France (Yam) ; 2 . Team Kawasak i France Igol (Ka w) ; 3 . Honda Elf (Hen): 4 . T eam Free Bike Performance (Yam ); 5 . Team Mota / / W[}f)@ W&JfiDli'0 li[}f)@ W@[lD@)cgJ When it was revea led that Circ uit Paul Ricard would indeed run its last Bol d'Or meeti ng in 1999, th ere were those who were resig ned to the fact th at the Bol d'Or as such would be as good as dead. The reason in g was pu rely emotional if apparent ly sound enough in logic. It j ust wouldn 't be the same, without Paul Ricard - or as it is also known , Le Cast ellet. Showing its age in many ma terial ways, the Ricard-based Bo l was nonetheless a gen uine insti tution . No t j ust t he second World End urance ro und in France and th e sacre-couer of lo ng -distance raci ng , but one of the last genu ine classic bike events in its own rig ht. Daytona may be a shadow of its former self, likewise the IT, li k ewi se just about any surviving one-off race you ca re to ment ion. but th e Bol d'Or was a living, breathing epic of an event at Le Cas te lle t. Come to think about it , so are Le Ma ns and Spa Fra nco rcha mps at their own ven ues . Bu t with Ric ard now coming un der the category of ano th er one of F·1 supremo Bernie Eccl estone' s pla ythi ngs (a nd ru m or ed to hav e j ust been sold to Me rcedes, who will bu ild a new test tr ack), t he Bol had to find anothe r ven ue for its 64th outi ng (coun t 'em , 64), and mov ed to what is arguably th e cente r of co nte mporary Fr en ch m otor spo rt, Ma gny-Cours. Seemingly in th e middle of nowhe re, Ma gn y -Cours is , ironically , an F-1 -inspired ra cetr ack and about as different from Ricard as it is possible to be. Landlock ed for hu ndreds of miles (instead of a st on e's throw fr om the beach at th e chic resort of Bandol ), stultifying and tw isty (unli ke th e oft en mightily fast full ci rc uit at Ric ard ), and near no obvio usly fan ta stic place to be fo r th e weekend. Other th an Franc e its elf , of course, whi ch is alw ays worth even j ust riding around in , Magny Cours felt, to yo ur humble scribe at least , just a little soull ess aft er Ric ar d, And seem ingly nowhere near as wil d off-piste. And th e tr ack is hard on rid ers and not exactly built for b ike s. Th ey say th at Magny Cours' layout is in spired by other great F -1 venu es, and i f th at's th e ca se the y sh ou ld have just chosen better co rne rs to base the circ ui t on. Dull , alt hough in lin e for changes next year, apparentl y . It appears, howe ver , that th e very fact tha t Magn y Cours is in th e m iddle of nowhere - or m or e acc uratel y ex actly in the m id dle of France - will be the reason fo r it s sho rt and long -term salvatlon acc ording to the promoters of th e Bol d'Or at least , in th e fo rm of Director of Lariviere Organizati on , E.A. Bahman. "When th e Bol w as in th e South , th e spe cta to rs had to come very far, bec ause they were principall y from the north of France [the Le Mans and Spa histor y sc oring there] ," Bahma n said. "It wa s a long way for th em , and they had to travel down the day before th e start of the race . Magny Cou rs is lo ca ted in the center of Franc e, across the center of Europe in fact . It is 200km [124 mil es] from Paris , 200km from Lyon , and there are m ot orways all th e wa y here from all over Occidental Eu rope." If th e fina l attendanc e figures of 62 ,000 at Magny Cours are to be believed , and Lariviere having already been reported to have sig ned a five-year deal to come back, th en Ba hma n's opt im ism is not m isplac ed. So the Bollooks lik e it will surv ive in its seventh (yes sev ent h) move of venue with even less disruption th en the last one from Le Ma ns. "I organized th e la st Bol d'Or held at Le Mans, 23 years ago ." said Bah m an. "B ecause it was a very big success, th e ACO [A utom obile Cl ub de l 'Ou est e, the club which owns Le Mans], decided that they would run their own 24 Hours of Bol d' Or - witho ut any discussion with us. So we decided to go to th e south, to th e re la tiv ely new Le Cast ell et , because it is impossibie to have tw o ra ces with th e same co ncept in the same area . The Bol d 'O r co ntinued fo r ano ther 22 year s in Le Cas tellet. "T he B ol d'Or has changed many t imes in 64 y ears . I reme mber when we we nt fro m Le Mans to Le Castellet, all the ri ders, were saying 'We can't have the Bol d' Or if it is not in Le Mans . It is impossible,".because it had been at Le Ma ns for ten years. Th ey th ought Le Cast ell et was in Afric a! "We h ad bi g p roble ms fo r t he f irst th ree years in Le Castell et and we had to spend a lot of money and effo rt in » 8 OCTOBER 4, 2000' cue I e n e vv prom oting it. We los t a lot of m oney , but afte r th ree ye ars it was okay. It seems here th at the co nso lation for tha t ti me is alrea dy here · for now at least. For th is firs t race at Magny Cours, it was easie r t han th e cha nge from Le Ma ns." It seems, therefore , tha t the Bol will surv ive, in deed flourish , at yet anot her new hom e. In fact, the more time passed at Magny·Cours, the m o re t he rea li zati on d awned that a change of ven ue seems to be just another pupal stage in the development of the Bol, as it flits from one flower to the next. Whether or not a viable season -long World Endurance Championship can re-i nv ent itseif with its crown j ewels being guarded by custodians ot h er than t hemselves is anoth er po int open to debate . And the reason s for that are (with our normal senses of logic rotated to full reverse lock ), all to do with the suc ces s of the champion ship's big four races · Spa , Le Mans, the Bol and th e Suzuka 8 Hour. Not to mention th e contemporary Japanese attit ude to Endurance, GP raci ng and, of co urse, perceived valu e for m oney from their factory racing budgets. Th ere are a lot of classes in World road rac ing nowadays and all the talk is of streamlining GP and World Superbi ke into one cham pions hip , so if there is mo ney to be had for works end uranc e teams, the facto ries have bee n doing a good job of hi ding it. At the end of last year the Fiam m ini organization bou ght the rig hts to World Endurance from the FIM , add ing it to its cu rren t World Superbike portfolio, with t he entire ope ration overseen by Octagon , th e parent co m pany of SB K Int ern ationa l, Trouble was, in th e organization of the big th ree 24 hour rac es, F1ammini found a solid wa ll of resentm ent and lack of cooperation , the manifestations of wh ic h w er e, an d are, many-fo ld . For exam ple, th ose Fl ammini sta ff charge d with the job-of oversee ing th e wh ol e champio ns hi p ' inst iga te d a new pass system, with perm an ent pa sses for everyone in vol ved in the ser ies. Yet at the m ain rac es of the year, they have been co m pletely ignored , with variou s personnel initially refu sed entry unless th ey also had event passes fro m the promoters of the big three events . And at Suzuka Fl ammini also fo und th at the Japanese ar e largely unin ter ested in th e great er wo rld of Enduranc e outwith what takes plac e under th eir very own noses - bec aus e it costs a lot of m on ey for what th ey see as little rewa rd in terms of pr estig e. Compared to th eir other exp loits on th e GP and World Superb ik e stages any way. Acc ordin g to Bahman at lea st, th e reasons for all the gears failing to m esh right now are simp le. None of th e big th ree In Europ e feel th at th ey even need a World Endurance Championship ta g on th eir eve nt for it to be a success, so what ev er th e FIM, Fl ammin i or an y one else threatens , caj oles, or tri es to sell to t hem , t hei r exis te nce is - in th eir own hearts and m inds - untouchable from outside. " I am happy th at we have a deal with th e FiM , but ha vi ng no World Championship sta tus is no different than having It," he said . " I want to be here promoting th e Bo l d 'O r, with the World Championsh ip added, not the World Championship, wi th the Bol d'Or add ed , Le Mans said the same thing. " W ith th e ap pearance of fla mmini o n th e sce ne , many thought tha t a wa y forw ard and up ward had been fou nd for the whol e championship· which was som ething of a relief to all the (few) teams that do not emanate from France. And given tha t the proposed Wor ld Champi ons hi p c alendar fo r next yea r incl udes, t he big four , pl us rou nds in South Afric a, Aust rali a , America, as we ll as V alen ci a and O schersleben , the n the im port ance of Wo rl d Endurance is th eo ret ic all y on the up . Th e only proble m seems to be money. As always. Prom oting new endurance races in unconquered markets will take a serious budg et , wi th no immediate, or ultimately guaranteed, ret urn. And , as new World Ch ampions Phase One and their ilk are keen to tell you, com pe ti ng in allrounds of th e cha mpionship will cost th en a huge amount of money as w ell. For fact or y teams, it will cost even m or e. Prohib itivel y m ore; pr ov ed by th e poi nt that the ch ampi onship present ly boa st s zero ful l -works teams, although th e factory bikes do tum up fo r th e bi g rac es. Som e perfect ill ustrat ion s of so me of th e p roblems that afflict the World Championship now were evident at the BoL After the race, the World's press (or more exactly, France's pr ess and a few others ) were issued with co m ple te and perfectly formed results sheets, with every p ractice and race eve nt fro m the B ol bo und to geth er in a ve ry pro fessiona l pack age. s Bu t even with the Bo l hosting the last and dec id ing round o f t he World En du r an c e C ha m p io ns hi p, nowh er e in t h is impressi ve do cu m ent w as there a .defin itive li st of ch arnpio nship points , or even a hint of them to be go ing on with . No ne we re issu ed, even under sepa rate covert A mazi ng. Even th e crowni ng of Phase One as World Cham pi o ns w as ca rried out befor e the awarding of t he Bo l trophi es, with Phase One not even getting t hei r riders onto the press confere nce ta ble afterwards - a stu nning omission to everyone in the roo m who does not cou nt Fre nc h as their na tiv e tongue. The press conference was, of course. carried out almost entirely in French , with o nly t he A ussie pairi ng of wi nner Mark Wil li s an d ro strum fi nish er Ka rl Muggeridge being posed their questions in the world 's dominant language. Be lgian St ephane Mertens, a vital part of ph ase On e's cam paign thus far , was even heard to utter - fro m his cha ir at the ba ck of the room no less · " It's a very French race, no?" Phase One , to thei r cre d it , j ust shrugged th ei r lack of atte ntion off, being used to being sad dled with the rol e of outside rs at the big 24 -ho ur meetings , despite passion for lonq haul racing emanati ng from the ir every overworked pore. Ma ke no m istake, the Bol is t he Bo l , not World End urance, and despite the afo rementio ned lack of concessions to anyone outside t he Ga llic for ce field, the unrem itting Fr ench feel to th e whole eve nt is one of th e race 's m any -lay ered intoxicating cha rms. T o my Scotti sh/ British/European eyes th e Bol is sim ply , a Frenc h Nat io na l institu ti on , which is now being relo cat ed to Ne ve rs, m ay eve n see it s best o ppo rt unity for growth and development co m in g from withi n it s own borders, as th e specta to r ca tc hme nt areas grow . Th ere is no question that Magny Cours has Ricard beaten hands down in m any w ays , bu t t he undercurrents .co m ing fro m th e non -French fans pr esent is t hat the atmosphere is sim ply not the same as it was at Ricard , desp ite Motorhead gi gs , 100,000 grandstand seats to watch from night and day, th e truly tense racing betw een th e top three fa ct ory teams, and d'accord, th e g reat efforts on the part of th e or ganizers to make th e event a repeatabl e suc ce ss. . In th e minds of m any, the delights of th e new Bol d'Or ha ve ye t to outweigh the emotion and spirit of th e Band ol races. Maybe th e usual strong co nt ingent o f Brits and ot he r weather -beaten No rt hem-Euro peen spe ctator s w ill tum their backs o n th e m or e ci vilized , les s vacation-fri endly Bol at Nevers, or ma yb e th ey will j ust create their own new .t raditi ons and dev el op fr esh affections for Magny Cours, whic h will have ex tensive wo rk c arr ied out to m ak e it more bikefriendly in th e winte r (if Bernie says o ka y , of cou rse). Maybe th e qu ite obv iou sly j ealously gua rd ed Gold en Bowl is a trophy that may not find its elf p art of any bra ve new enduranc e ser ies, how ever well int ent ioned , if Lariviere feel th at their co ntro l is being und ermined by th e new rights holders. M ay be - in a swe ep ing general ization - few outside Franc e rea lly ca re about , or un derst and enduran c e racing anyway. Bah ma n may we ll agree wi th th at idea, and beli eves that Flammini is attempting to build a castle without firm fou ndations . "We had a big meeti ng with Mr. Zerbi fro m the F1 and M Mr. Flammini in Geneva, and I told them t hat if they do not have Ho nda in J apan , Suzuki, Kaw asaki, Yamaha , D uc ati • everybody - discu ss the fut ure of endurance : an d if th ey do no t forc e, rea lly for c e them to partici pate at a fac tory lev el, th en there's no way [it wi ll succeed ]. I told them tha t ot herwise we have Le Mans, Li eg e and the Bo l d' Or, bu t the other races wi ll have a lot of problems. " It is very exp ensive to organize enduran c e. We have 80 perce nt French tea ms , and th e big works bikes are not from th e factories in Japan , but the F rench Im port ers. It is not ex ac t ly the same [as an y oth er championship]. I told Mr. F lammin i th at if he wa nt s to have a lo t o f m o ney fr om end uranc e, t hen it is no way he will su cc eed . Th ere is no com mercial reality to having an enduranc e race in Spain, for example." , Whether or not Flammini's organization proves to be fruitf u l i n thei r 'st at ed aim of enhancing the level o f Worl d Endurance, it ap pears that the first battles have to be fo ug ht - o r hopefully truce s drawn up - between th e esta blis hed Gal lic order and the me n and women wh o now desire the World of En durance racing to go from introspecti ve to agg res sively outgo in g. .

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