YART Takes 8 Hours of Spa Motos
A
fter a challenging 24 Heures
Motos, the Yamalube YART
Yamaha EWC Official Team (Nic
-
colo Canepa, Marvin Fritz and
Karel Hanika) secured its second
consecutive victory in the FIM
Endurance World Championship
at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
The 8 Hours of Spa Motos
turned into a strategic show
-
down. Despite YART's superior
pace after qualifying on pole, its
higher fuel consumption neces-
sitated an extra pit stop.
Yoshimura SERT Motul (Gregg
Black, Etienne Masson and Dan
Linfoot), April's Le Mans winner,
was in contention for the win
but had to relinquish the lead to
reigning EWC title holders YART,
coming second by the rela
-
tively narrow margin of 40.145
seconds. Third place went to
the Tati Team Beringer Racing
Honda team of Corentin Perolari,
Hugo Clere and Randy Krumme
-
nacher.
"When we came here for the
testing on Thursday, we saw it
would be tough, because we knew
we would need a bit more fuel and
one more pit stop in the race than
our competitors," Fritz explained.
"For sure in qualifying, we were
super-fast, and to have the new
lap record at Spa is amazing. But
we knew the race would be tough,
and our only chance was from
the beginning to put the pressure
on all the others. Niccolo started
amazingly, and Karel and I con
-
tinued like Niccolo, started and
pushed every lap; we had to, but
we made it perfect."
As the teams prepare for the
45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours
in Japan next month, YART trails
Yoshimura SERT Motul by just
one point in the title race, 88-87.
In the Dunlop-supplied Super
-
stock category, Aviobike by M2
Revo and Aprilia celebrated their
first victory. However, National
Motos Honda's second-place
finish extended their lead in the
FIM Endurance World Cup stand
-
ings, now on 91 points to 3ART
Best of Bike Yamaha's 55. Team
33 Louit April Moto rounded out
the Superstock podium.
America had something to
cheer about as well, with Ja
-
son Pridmore, Andrew Lee and
Michael Gilbert all teaming up
in a one-off race with the Maco
Yamaha outfit. Despite having
little pre-race preparation, the
trio acquitted themselves well
to the task and came home 23rd
outright and 12th in the Super
-
stock category on their Yamaha
YZF-R1M.
CN
OVERALL (Top 5)
1. Yamalube YART Yamaha
2. Yoshimura SERT Motul
3. Tati Team Beringer Racing
4. Honda Viltais Racing
5. F.C.C. TSR Honda France
WIND
IN THE
P52
YART's (1) season got back on track
with the 8 Hours of Spa Motos win.
