YART Win Dramatic 2023 EWC Title
T
he Yamalube YART Yamaha
EWC Official Team won the
2023 FIM Endurance World
Championship following a tense
finish to the season at Circuit
Paul Ricard as Yoshimura SERT
Motul won the 86th Bol d'Or.
Austria-based YART was one
of six teams in EWC title conten
-
tion starting the 24-hour event,
but endured a nervy conclusion
to the race due to a tempera-
ture issue that forced the team
to make multiple pit stops for
repairs.
With defending champion
F.C.C. TSR Honda France retir
-
ing after three hours following
a mechanical failure and the
BMW Motorrad World Endurance
Team dropping out of the lead
fight due to two unscheduled pit
visits, YART needed a top-nine
finish to secure the champion-
ship.
Running with a special liv-
ery to commemorate the 25th
anniversary of the Yamaha R1,
the Bridgestone-equipped YART
trio of Niccolò Canepa, Marvin
Fritz and Karel Hanika eventu-
ally finished fourth to take the
EWC title behind race winners
SERT, with Honda Viltais Racing
and the BMW Motorrad World
Endurance Team taking second
and third, respectively, on the Bol
d'Or podium.
"The team did an amazing job,
I'm really proud of them and my
teammates were riding superb-
ly," said Czech Hanika, whose
Yamaha was fully functioning at
the finish. "Big thanks to Ya-
maha for this opportunity. Every
rider participates in this champi-
onship because they want to win
and that's why we are here trying
to do our best."
YART takes the title with 181
points ahead of SERT at 161
and the BMW Motorrad World
Endurance Team at 160. With
their failure to finish in France,
former champions F.C.C. TSR
Honda France drop to fourth in
the standings at 149.
CN
WIND
IN THE
P52
YART came from behind to win
the 2023 EWC title in France.
