Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROADRACE World Championship Endurance Series: Round 4 ~ Kawasaki France tops Bol d:Or ~ By Gary Pinchin PAUL RICARD, FRANCE, SEPT. 20 ngland's Carl Fogarty and Terry Rymer won their third straight World Championship 24-hour race for Kawasaki France, this time teamed with ·fellow Brit Steve Hislop at the Bol d'Or, held at the Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France. They dominated the entire weekend, . setting pole time and leading from the end of the first lap right unti12:08 p.m. when the race was red-flagged as spectators swarmed onto the track in typical Bol d'Or fashion, almost 50 minutes before the scheduled finish. It was a convincing one-two for Kawasaki with the team of. defending series champ Alex Vieira, Jean-Louis Battistini and Jehan d'Orgeix finishing five laps adrift of the sister bike after an oil leak early Sunday morning and a minor overheating problem slowed them. The World Championship looks set to go to one or both of the Brits, but it is still not clinched. Rymer and Fogarty have a 34-point lead over Suzuki privateer Michel Graziano and there are 40 points up for grabs with two "sprint" races left in Malaysia and Australia. Graziano raced to fourth place in the Bolon the Team 72/Cassegrain Motos Suzuki. His teammates were none other than Canadian Mario DuHamel, elder brother of Grand Prix star Miguel, and top class Belgian Michel Simeon. The factory Suzuki 'threat failed to materialize when they retired early in the third hour with a suspected main bearing failure. The Suzuki retirement was just one in an incident packed first three hours which was punctuated by a series of engine failures and crashes. E Qualifying Qualifying showed the Kawasakis to be fast while the sole works Suzuki, appeared to have the better handling. Fogarty grabbed pole with a twominute, 00.02-second lap from Herve Moineau) who was fastest of the three Suzuki riders with a 2:00.17 and he topped the early morning warm-up with a 2:02.75. Third fastest was Vieira with a 2:00.78. The quickest non-factory bike was the semi-works Godier Genoud ZXR750 of Denis Bonoris, Christophe Mouzin and Patrick Lelan, then came the Finacor Yamaha, while the best Honda was the National Motos RC30 of Guy Bertin, Adrien Morillas and Arnaud De Puniet. Sixty-nine riders qualified for the race. The Cassegrain Suzuki qualified II th with a new water-cooled bike replacing the old air-cooled GSXR. DuHamel/Simeon/Perrin raced to fifth at Le Mans and DuHamel/ Simeon/Graziano took fourth on at Spa. Graziano was drafted into the factory Suzuki team at Le Mans, replacing the injured Patrick Igoa. DuHamel was delighted with the new bike: "The motor makes a little more horsepower, but the handling is a lot better," he said. 26 Race At precisely three-o'clock on Saturday afternoon, the 56th Bol d'.or, watched by 80,000 fans, got underway with Guy Bertin out-sprinting the factory riders across the track and immediately taking the lead with his National Motos Honda. But it was short-lived. In the final tum of the first lap, Fogarty dived under the Honda to snatch the first. lap lead Before the race Fogarty had vowed: "I shall try and get the· lead right from the start - and if I don't get away well, I aim to push as hard as I can to get in front and build a lead. " That he certainly did. Moineau kept him at bay for three laps while Fogarty dragged him clear of the pack, but on the fourth lap the British rider cut loose and built himself a two-second. cushion in one 3.6-mile lap. Vieira, on the other Kawasaki France ZXR-7, had made a sluggish start, but once he had gotten by Bertin, he set off after Moineau, nailing him on the ninth lap. Bertin slid backwards into a fantastic scrap with the Godier Genoud Kawasaki of Bonoris, the two swapping places eyery lap and Bertin giving teasing "come and get me" glances over his shoulder each lap he led in front of the pits. In sixth during the early laps, Nicotte on the Chomat Honda was ahead of Mattioli on the Finacor Yamaha from the Gudit Honda of Serge David, J -L Romanens and Dieter Heinen. The first round of scheduled pit stops was just coming up,. in fact Fogarty had been in and handed over to Rymer, when the pace car came out for the first time. Mattioli had crashed heavily at the end of the Mistral Straight in the high speed right-hander (130 mph plus) called Signes. Peter Linden, running just behind him on the Moto Sport Courneuview 9 Honda, saw everything: "It looked like his brake caliper broke up and smashed up the rotor. . I tried to get alongside him and warn him but didn't make it and when he got to' the comer he had no brakes." Mattioli's bike also lubricated a large portion of the track with oil when parts of the rotor flew off and punctured the sump pan. The pace car was out from 3:44 p.m. until 4:10 p.m., yet with slick pit'work, Bonhuil took the Finacor OW back out onto the track before the pace car was brought in. When racing resumed, Battistini led initially, and nearly highsided in the second to last comer, a left-hander . the very first lap after the pace car had pulled off. That incident let Rymer close him down and, a lap later, the Brit was back in front and pulling clear at almost a second a lap. Just before the second hour, Lavielle brought the factory Suzuki in with a major engine problem. The team started a fruitless stripdown of the water-cooled motor, but were listed among the "abandons" at 5:09 p.m. with a suspected main bearing failure. Only a little over two hours of the race was complete and the race between the factory teams was over. At the same time Suzuki announced their withdrawl from the race, there ~ was more drama on the track as Californian Doug Toland crashed in the final turn. He was unhurt but the bike was damaged (mainly cosmetics). Repairs took over half an hour and they dropped from sixth, three laps adrift of the leading Kawasaki, to 56th overall, 20 laps behind the leaders. At 6 p.m., the British riders on the Kawasaki France machine had almost a minute on the all-French' crewed sister ZXR. The Godier Genoud Kawasaki was up to third, two laps adrift but having passed the Chomat Honda of Nicotte/LovichilMouchet. The latter was on the same lap and under pressure from the National Motos Honda of Bertin, but the race was one of attrition with many crashes and engine failures during the hot early . pace. With so many" crashes and subsequent debris there were also a number of flat tires. As Rymer prepared for his stint to take him into the fourth hour he explained his strategy: "Even though the Suzuki is out we can't relax yet. There's still a long way to go and we want to put at least a lap on Vieira," said Rymer. "So I'm going to try and cut some fast laps in my session and build a lead on Battistini." The fourth placed Chomat Honda dropped to' 33rd in the fourth hour when Mouchet crashed. They lost nine laps effecting repairs. . At 6:45 p.m., Mattioli pushed back into the pit lane with the Finacor Yamaha, yet again. This time it was the last. The bike was parked with a suspected connecting rod failure. Yet another of the top teams was sidelined. Up front, the Rymer Kawasaki continued to make the pace, eventually pulling one lap on the Vieira machine in the eighth hour and they went further ahead during another pace car situation during the 10th hour. Oil had been deposited when Corneuview 9 Honda, with Lussiana on board, blew in a big way in the first, fast lefthander, and Vieira's team dropped another lap trying to sneak a tire change under the yellow but mistimed badly as the pace car came back out before they got back on the track. Rymer's lead however, was not without a scary moment. He had been having difficulty picking out his tum in points in the darker sections of the track and ran onto the rumble strip. of the apex of Signes one lap. "Someone must have clipped one of the track reflectors on the curbing because it wasn't there to use as a marker one lap. I tipped in a little too early and went over the curbing and got both wheels off the ground/' said Rymer. "At what, 140 mph, chat's no joke. I thought, this is goodbye folks, but somehow I stayed onl" And perhaps all was not well with the leading Kawasaki. Hislop pitted at 1.37 a.m. to hand over to Fogarty and reported that the motor had lost its edge. "Early in the race I could easily pace Vieira's bike," said Hislop. "But it was not fast enough to keep with D'Orgeix in that session." The Godier Genoud Kawaskai was running consistently in third with Bertin's National Motos Honda holding fourth despite a flat tire early on. The Cassegrain Suzuki held fifth two laps behind and then came the second National Motos Honda of Laglois/ Briguet/Cazade in sixth. Seventh was developing into a cracking battle with three teams on the same lap; the Van der Val Yamaha was ahead of the Gudit Honda and the Phase One Kawasaki, but just after the Dutch team showed their rider the one lap to go board before a refueling stop, the OWOI ran out of gas at post 26 and lost several laps pushing in. That dropped them two places. At middle distance, at 3 a.m., Rymer had a two-lap lead over Vieira with the Godier Kawasaki third another seven laps back. Bertin was fourth, 12 laps off the leaders and another two laps back came the Cassegrain Suzuki of DuHamel. The Van der Wal bike lost seven more laps just before dawn when it was involved in a six-bike crash on an oil slick. The oil was all around the track and three more bikes crashed in separate incidents bringing out the pace car. By the time the track was cleared, the sun was up and riders could see the cement dust marking the dangerous lines through the turns. The race order status quo' was maintained with Rymer picking up a couple more laps on their teammates and by morning they enjoyed a fivelap lead. Vieira lost the time when he was forced to pit with oil all over the bike. A possible cause was overfilling during the previous changeover. ·At 9 a.m., the Godier bike went out with a broken cam chain which brought worried fans in the factory team pits and their riders were immediately instructed to start short shifting to preserve the motor. Their fears worsened when the Vieira bike only did one lap after a 9:20 a.m. pit stop and came in with the temperature gauge beginning to creep up. The bottom half fairing was removed and fingers were crossed as the bike rejoined the race. With the Godier team out, the National Motos Honda of Bertin was promoted to third place and the second National Motos entry was up to fourth having passed the Cassegrain Suzuki. The Phase One Kawasaki was up to sixth, three laps up on the Gudit Honda which had lost time in the night with a minor oil leak. After Hislop pitted, handing over to Fogarty with two and a half hours left, the Scot admitted: "I've been shifting at 11,000 (instead of 13,000 rpm plus) and I'm rolling off down the Mistral at 12,000. I've also been trying to run one gear higher through the turns to avoid shifting so much. The gearbox is worrying us - it's whining badly." But the fears were unfounded as the race reached an early conclusion. Rymer/Fogarty/Hislop took the win, four laps ahead of their French teammates. The National Motos Honda of Bertin/Morrilas/De Puniet, as at Le Mans, went all race without major problems to take third, 19 laps behind the winning Kawasaki. Michel Graziano/Mario DuHamel and Michel Simeon took fourth place, two laps further back to maintain Graziano's outside chance of the title. "I' really enjoyed the race." DuHamel said. It's great to be part of such a strong team, We lost a couple of minutes replacing a muffler and a couple more during a wheel change but otherwise the bike was great. "I was having a lot 'of fun, getting the front end sliding around some. I was cutting two minute-fours in the race when we were under pressure from the number 15 Honda. The times were a couple of tenths .of a second inside my qualifying time." CN Results BOL D'OR: I. Rymer/Fogarty/Hislop (Kaw); 2. Vieira/Ballistini/D'Orgeiz (Kaw); 3. Bertin/Moril· las/Depuniet (Hon); 4. Simeon/DuHamel/Graziano (Suz); 5. Langlois/BriguetiCazade (Hon); 6. Lins· cottiBateman/Manley (Kaw); 7. David/Romanens/ Heinen (Hon); 8. Nicolle/Lovichi/Mounchet (Hon); 9. Soulon/BroneciBuckmaster (Hon); 10. Milletl ColetiPlanken (Yam). Time: 23 hours. 8 min., 27.78 sec. Distance: 635 laps; 2286 miles. Average Speed: 99.237 mph. Margin o(Victory: 5 laps. WORLD C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS: I. (TIE) Carl FogartylTerry Rymer (120); 3. Michel Graziano (86); 4. (TIE) Mario DuHamellJehan D'Orgeixl Steve Hislop/Michel Simeon (74); 8. (TIE) Alex Vieira/Jean. Louis Battistini (68); 10. Bernard Soulon (52).

• Cover