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/875372
IN THE WIND P52 GMT94 TAKE 2017 BOL D'OR 24 HOUR R eigning Endurance World Champions GMT94 Yamaha with riders David Checa, Niccolo Canepa and Mike di Meglio have taken line honors in the open- ing round of the 2017-2018 FIM Endurance World Championship at the Bol d'Or 24 at Paul Ricard in France, September 16-17. GMT94 dominated the event, leading at the eight-hour and 16- hour marks to take the maximum 60 points on offer to the race winner. Second went to Wepol BMW Motorrad Team by Penz13 (Markus Reiterberger/Alessan- dro Polita/Danny Webb) and Honda Endurance Racing (Greg- ory Leblanc/Sebastien Gim- bert/Yonny Hernandez) rounding out the podium. The final battle for the podium was an intense one as Honda Endurance Rac- ing's Gimbert had his hands full with German female rider Lucy Glockner on the Voelpker NRT48 Schubert-Motors by ERC BMW S 1000 RR. It was the first time in the history of the EWC a female racer had been in contention for the podium, however, it was not to be as Glockner crossed the line just over one second behind Gimbert at the finish. Fifth at the Bol went to IVRac- ing BMW CSEU (Karel Hanika/ Fabrizio Lai/Julien Mayer, BMW S 1000 RR), with F.C.C. TSR Honda France, Suzuki Endur- ance Racing Team, Tati Team Beaujolais Racing Kawasaki, Team 33 Accessories Kawasaki and Junior Team LMS Suzuki rounding out the top 10. CN GMT94 showed just why they are World Champions with a dominant victory at the Bol d'Or. ROSSI COULD BE BACK FOR ARAGON AFTER ALL V alentino Rossi could be back in time for the Aragon MotoGP round after all, having completed a short shakedown run at Misano on a Yamaha YZF-R6 street bike on Sep- tember 18, barely 18 days after breaking his right leg in an enduro training accident. Rossi completed just four laps of the Misano circuit to gauge his fitness ahead of the Aragon MotoGP round this weekend, although no lap times or press releases were avail- able as Cycle News went to press. Rossi's place at Aragon is set to be filled by current Pata Ya- maha WorldSBK rider Michael van der Mark in what would be the Dutchman's MotoGP debut. This, of course, would not hap- pen if Rossi is declared fit to race as he is still in with a shot of the MotoGP title—the Doc- tor sits 42 points behind joint title leaders Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso. Should Rossi not take part at Aragon, he is expected to race the following round at Motegi in Japan in October. CN Valentino Rossi dearly wants to be back for Aragon but is facing an uphill struggle to be fit. PHOTOGRAPHY BY YAMAHA RACING