Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Yamaha GMT94’s David Checa, Sebastien Gimbert and William Costes won round five of the six-round FIM Endurance World Championship, a 24-hour event August 14-15 at Oschersleben in Germany.

The win in the double-point race combined with the DNF of Castrol Suzuki (Vincent Philippe/Olivier Four/Matthieu Lagrive) allows Yamaha GMT94 to clinch the Endurance World Championship with one round remaining.

Yamaha GMT94 and Castrol Suzuki swapped the lead back and forth with each pit stop through the first half of the race.

Thanks to a longer range on each load of fuel, Castrol Suzuki was set up to do two less pit stops than Yamaha GMT94, but Castrol Suzuki’s GSX-R1000 blew its engine shortly after midnight forcing the team to retire.

From there, Yamaha GMT94 continued its trouble-free race and cruised home to win by a large margin.

Yamaha Austria’s Horst Saiger, Thomas Hinterreiter and Igor Jerman finished second, and Yamaha Endurance Moto 38’s Gwen Giabbani, Sebastien Scarnato and Stephane Duterne completed the Yamaha YZF-R1 sweep of the podium in third.

Defending Endurance World Champions Yamaha Phase One’s trouble year continued with a mechanical problem 15 minutes into the event and a race-ending crash within the first six hours.

America Randy Rega rode with Hannover Buell’s Dirk Scheffer and Holger Aue on a XB12R Firebolt and finished 33rd in the 43-team field.


More, from a press release issued by FGSport Group:

Yamaha GMT94 have won the Oschersleben 24 Hour round of the World Endurance Championship and taken an unbeatable lead in the championship standings to claim the 2004 World Endurance Championship with one race still to run.

Yamaha GMT94 were first away and led the opening laps, but Suzuki Castrol caught and passed them to take the lead at the end of the first hour. These two teams continued to trade places for several hours as each in turn made pit stops for fuel and tyres. Behind them a three way fight for third place developed between Yamaha Endurance Moto 38, Kawasaki Bolliger Team and Yamaha Austria.

The Oschersleben circuit is notoriously tough on man and machine, and this year’s race proved to be tougher than most; every hour saw mechanical failure or rider error bring yet another team into the pits for repairs. Yamaha Phase One’s run of bad luck continued with first an electrical problem and then a crash which forced them to retire, WRT Honda Austria were stopped by engine problems, as were Bolliger Kawasaki and X-One Benelli.

After eight hours of racing the leading pair of Suzuki Castrol and Yamaha GMT94 were still swapping first and second places with each pit stop, while Yamaha Austria held third place and Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 worked their way back up through the field.

Suzuki Castrol’s race was over soon after one third distance had been covered. A terminal engine failure forced them to retire, with the resulting oil spill bringing down several other bikes. As dawn broke over the Oschersleben circuit, Yamaha GMT94 held a comfortable lead over Yamaha Austria, with Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 having regained third place. With GMT94 more than ten laps ahead of the Austrian team, and Endurance Moto 38 a similar distance behind them in third, the leading positions settled down despite the best efforts of Moto 38 to close the gap.

The war of attrition continued lower down the order however, with Kawasaki Deutschland, Kawasaki Diablo Bolliger, Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se and Shell Endurance Academy all being forced to pit in the closing hours. Yamaha Austria had a scare during the mid morning period when their bike seemed to be overheating, but by managing the gap between them and Moto 38 and making good use of pace-car periods to make unscheduled stops they were able to hold onto second place despite a failing gear box.

Fourth place went to Swiss long-distance experts Suzuki Jet Endurance, fifth to German team Suzuki Bridgestone Bikers Profi, and sixth to another German squad, Hepelmann Racing Team. The story of this race, though, is the toll taken on some of the most experienced endurance teams in the world. Suzuki Castrol, Kawasaki Bolliger, Yamaha Phase One Endurance and Honda Austria are all capable of running with the best, but the Oschersleben 24 Hours got the better of them.

The Oschersleben race has left GMT94 with an unassailable fifty eight point lead in the championship – the title is theirs. Yamaha Austria have moved up to second place and Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 to third, just three points ahead of Suzuki Castrol.



Press Conference Quotes:

Christophe Guyot, team manager, Yamaha GMT94: “For sure I am very happy, but the reason I am very happy is because five years ago I said it was possible to be a world champion, and it in endurance it is so difficult – not because we must be better than the others, but because endurance always involves a little but of chance. I have always said everything is possible if you want it, but now I understand how difficult it is. Now, I can do anything.”

David Checa, Yamaha GMT94: “It’s hard to explain how I feel. I just tried to do my best here for Christophe and my team mates. We didn’t expect to win here, and not to win the championship.”

William Costes, Yamaha GMT94: “This is my first world championship, I’m very happy for my team manager because he has been working for this for many, many years. We are champions today because Pirelli, Yamaha France, Yamaha Europe and everyone in the team worked very hard for us.”

Igor Jerman, Yamaha Austria Racing Team: “The race was good; we tried to do some fast laps but we had some problems with the gear shift and then the radiator. In the last hour the gearbox broke so we have finished the race with just one gear – it’s very good to be on the podium.”

Gwen Giabbani, Yamaha Endurance Moto 38: “The start was not so bad but then we had a problem with the throttle cable – we broke it twice, so it was impossible to get back in touch with Yamaha Austria.”

Provisional Top Ten (All Classes)

1st 94 – Yamaha GMT94 – FRA – Yamaha YZF-R1 – Checa, Costes, Gimbert 883 laps

2nd 7 – Yamaha Austria – AUT – Yamaha YZF-R1 – Saiger, Hinterreiter, Jerman 865

3rd 38 – Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 – FRA – Yamaha YZF-R1 – Giabbani, Scarnato, Duterne 859

4th 4 – Suzuki Jet Team – SUI – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – Jaggi, Monot, Waldmeier 851

5th 47 – Suzuki Bridgestone Bikers Profi – GER – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – Strauch, Roethig, Czyborra 841

6th 92 – Yamaha Racing Team Hepelmann – GER – Yamaha YZF-R1 – Hepelmann, Kraechter, Wrede 833

7th 52 – Suzuki Engel Racing Team – GER – Suzuki GSX-R1000 – Kraft, Koenig, Steinbach 833

8th 57 – Suzuki Ingenys Racing – GER – Suzuki GSX-R750 – Apel, Moeckel, Raub 830

9th 76 – Yamaha Team Motorrad Klein – Yamaha YZF-R1 – Klein, Malec 829

10th 21 – Kawasaki Endurance Deutschland – Kawasaki ZX10R – Roth, Daehler, Wehran 827


More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki:

SERT LOSES RACE TO WORLD TITLE
Team Suzuki Press Office – August 15, 2004.

Suzuki Castrol has lost hopes of clinching the 2004 World Endurance Championship after mechanical problems forced them out of the Oschersleben 24 Hour race in Germany today when they were in the lead.

The SERT Team’s GSX-R1000, ridden by Frenchmen Vincent Philippe, Olivier Four, Matthieu Lagrive and Christophe Cogan, threw out oil and stopped just over 10 hours into the event that they had dominated from the front with arch rivals Yamaha GMT 94.

It was a cruel blow for the former World Champions who had a strategic advantage on the Yamaha team on the number of laps they could complete on a single tank of petrol; Team Manager Dominic Meliand reckoned on two less stops, although Yamaha’s actual pit stops were slightly quicker. This, he calculated, could have given them up to a minute advantage over 24 hours of racing.

But just after midnight, the Suzuki ran into mechanical problems and the split engine oil brought down several riders, forcing a pace car onto the circuit for 22 laps.

Said Meliand: “We don’t know what actually happened to the engine, but for us now, we will concentrate on winning the Bol d’Or and Vallelunga. We will have two bikes at the Bol but I don’t know who will ride. After this weekend, we have some big meetings in Paris.”

Suzuki rider Philippe took the lead on lap ten ahead of Yamaha GMT – who clinched the World title with victory as they now have an unassailable 58 point lead in the series – then after two hours, Yamaha had moved ahead thanks to some blistering laps and the fastest circuit of the event by team rider David Checa.

Four hours in, Suzuki had moved ahead again and after six hours, the gap between the leading teams was just 22 seconds. Suzuki’s advantage continued and after eight hours, the leading pair had pulled out a six lap lead on third-placed Yamaha Austria.

But their race ended very soon after.

The war of attrition continued lower down the order with Kawasaki Deutschland, Kawasaki Diablo Bolliger, Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se and Shell Endurance Academy all being forced to pit in the closing hours.

Yamaha Austria had a scare during the mid morning period when their bike seemed to be overheating but by managing the gap between them and Moto 38, and making good use of pace-car periods to make unscheduled stops, they were able to hold onto second place despite a failing gearbox.

Fourth place overall went to Swiss long-distance experts Suzuki Jet Endurance, fifth to Suzuki Bridgestone Bikers Profi and sixth to Hepelmann Racing Team. Suzuki Engel Racing Team claimed seventh and Suzuki Ingenys Racing Team steered their GSX-R750 to eighth position.