From a press release issued by FGSport:

Suzuki Police Nationale 22 Win Vallelunga 200

Suzuki GB Phase One Win World Endurance Championship

Three Different Manufacturers on Podium After Incident Packed Race

The Vallelunga 200 mile race has been won by Suzuki Police Nationale 22, with GMT94-96 in second place and Ducati DRE 5 in third place.

The 2003 FIM World Endurance Championship has been won by Suzuki GB Phase One, who finished the season 16 points ahead of their nearest rivals Suzuki Zongshen No.1.

Heavy rain as the bikes were forming up on the grid brought tyre choice chaos just before the Vallelunga 200 had even started. With no time for additional pit stops during a 200 mile sprint, teams were forced to guess at a tyre compromise which would suit the first hour of racing. Suzuki GB Phase One’s James Ellison led from the start on a still wet track, with Zongshen No.2’s Stephane Mertens close behind him. At the end of the first lap, Zongshen 2 had taken the lead, with Bontempi on the Zongshen 1 bike in second and Phase One third. Suzuki Police Nationale and Ducati DRE 5 were also closing up on the leaders as a cautious Ellison slipped down the field.

By lap 5 Mertens had pulled out a 2.5 second lead but was already catching backmarkers. A lap later he was nudged from behind by one of them and crashed the Zongshen No.2 bike, handing the lead to Police Nationale 22, with Zongshen 1 moving up to second and Yamaha GMT94 to third. Mertens rode the bike back to the pit, rejoined and then had to push the bike back once more for a new front wheel. A lap later Yamaha GMT94’s Checa crashed at the same corner as Mertens, pushing the bike back in to the pits where the team was forced to retire; their R1 could not be repaired. DRE Ducati were given a stop-go penalty, dropping them from third place, and Zongshen No.1’s Bontempi had a minor fall at the end of his session which dropped the team out of the running for the race lead.

At mid race distance, GMT94-96 were leading the race with Police Nationale in second place and DRE Ducati – the fastest bike on the track by a considerable margin – in third. KFM Herber were holding a good fourth place place, with Yamaha Austria in fifth, Diablo GB in sixth and Suzuki GB Phase One in seventh place.

The pace cars were called out on lap 77, with Police Nationale and GMT94-96 behind the
leading car, and DRE Ducati stranded half a lap away behind the second car. When the pace cars were recalled there was a sprint to the line for the two French teams, with the Ducati some 30 seconds behind unable to challenge them. Suzuki GB Phase One were slipping further down the field as their intermediate tyres began to go off on the drying track, but with Zongshen No.1 fighting back from eighth place the championship seemed to be safely in the British team’s hands.

Suzuki Police Nationale managed to stay ahead of GMT94-96, crossing the line just 0.068 seconds in front to take the win. This is the best result of the season for the Police team, and their first World Endurance win. This is also the first time we have seen three different manufacturers on the podium in many years. Yamaha GMT94-96 were second, Ducati DRE were third despite their earlier stop-go penalites, and German team KFM Herber were fourth.

Zongshen No.1 finished in fifth place, ahead of Suzuki GB Phase One’s twelfth but not scoring enough points to take the championship lead. Suzuki GB Phase One won their third World Endurance Championship with a 16 point advantage over Zongshen No.1 after a tough year which saw them score points at every round of the season.

Quotes

Gwen Giabbani – Police Nationale 22: “The last session was a big fight with Scarnato. When he was behind me I knew I could get away from him so I just tried to keep him behind me, passing back markers just before the corners to slow him down, and stuff like that.”

Sebastien Scanato – Yamaha GMT94-96: “The race had a lot of changes of position; I’m a little disappointed that I missed our chance to win; the team worked very hard for this.”

Russell Benney – Suzuki GB Phase One: “It’s been a very tense weekend; lots of incidents in qualifying and we’ve had a fraught race with both Zongshen bikes and GMT94 going down. We’ve scraped through after I made a questionable tyre choice, but 12th place was enough to take the championship. I’m so proud of all the guys who’ve worked so hard; all the riders and the pit crew… but it’s all paid off now that we’ve won this super World Endurance Championship.”



More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:

SUZUKI GB PHASE ONE WIN WORLD ENDURANCE

Suzuki GB Phase One have won their third FIM World Endurance Championship after a difficult and incident packed weekend at the 200 Miglia di Vallelunga.

The team held a comfortable advantage of twenty three points going into this race, only needing 12th place to secure the title if Zongshen won the race. The Suzuki GSX-R1000 mounted all British squad of James Ellison, Dean Ellison and Andi Notman qualified in fourth position, with their championship rivals Zongshen No.1 taking pole position.

The race began on a wet track after a heavy rain shower threw many teams into tyre choice confusion. Ellison led from the start but took a cautious approach after early front runners Stephane Mertens (Zongshen 2) and David Checa (GMT94) both fell while passing back markers. Zongshen 1’s Piergiorgio Bontempi also had a minor spill at the end of his first session, dropping the team down the order.

Phase One managed to hold onto twelfth place despite a poor tyre choice in the middle session, while Zongshen could only manage to claw their way back to fifth place; not enough to challenge Phase One’s points advantage. The race was eventually won by the French Police Nationale Team – also using a GSX-R1000 – but all the attention at the end of the race was focussed on championship winners Suzuki GB Phase One. They have scored points at every race this season, and finished an unprecedented nine world endurance races in a row.

Team manager Russell Benny wanted to give recognition to everyone who was involved in the team’s third world endurance championship: “It’s been a very tense weekend; lots of incidents in qualifying and we’ve had a fraught race with both Zongshen bikes and GMT94 going down. We’ve scraped through after I made a questionable tyre choice, but 12th place was enough to take the championship. I’m so proud of all the guys who’ve worked so hard; all the riders and the pit crew… but it’s paid off now that we’ve won this super World Endurance Championship.”