From a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:

SUZUKI ONE-TWO AT ALBACETE 12 HOUR

Suzuki GSX-R1000s finished in first and second place at the Albacete 12 Horas Nocturnas round of the FIM World Endurance Championship, with nine GSX-Rs scoring championship points.

The race was won by the Zongshen Team No.1 bike of Warwick Nowland, Stephane Mertens and Igor Jerman, with their team-mates on the Zongshen No.2 bike in second place. Suzuki GB Phase One finished in sixth place after racing their 2003 model GSX-R1000K3 for the first time at the Albacete race.

Suzuki GB Phase One team manager Russell Benney was very happy with the result: “The debut of the GSX-R1000K3 was fantastic – it was every thing we wanted it to be. We were amazed that the development of last year’s bike could be superseded, but this bike just does everything and more. The handling was very easy to set up and the engine was 100% bullet proof all weekend. We had a couple of small errors by our riders which set us back but in the end we came through to sixth place and picked up some valuable points to carry through to the next round at the A1 Ring in three weeks time.”

The race was a 12 hour event run non-stop through the night at the demanding Spanish circuit. Temperatures soared during qualifying giving some teams tyre and handling problems, but the night race was declared a success by competitors and spectators alike. An “Endurance Fiesta” was laid on for the public, and many British endurance fans made the event part of their Spanish holiday. The next round of the Championship is a six hour race at the A1-Ring in Austria on the 20th of July.


More, froma press release issued by FGSPORT GROUP:

Albacete 24 Horas Nocturnas

Zongshen First and Second, Spanish Yamaha Folch Third

The Albacete 12 Horas Nocturnas has been won by Suzuki Zongshen No.1 (Nowland, Mertens, Jerman), with Suzuki Zongshen No.2 (Bonhuil, Bontempi, Lerat) second and Yamaha Folch Endurance (Fernandez, Tomas, Rodriguez) third.

Zongshen No.1 were a clear lap ahead of their team mates at the end of the race. Folch Endurance continuously pressed Zongshen 2 throughout the final hour, but were unable to close the gap between second and third to less than twenty nine seconds. Together with Suzuki Police Nationale and Suzuki GB Phase One the two Zongshen bikes and Folch Endurance had set the pace for the whole race.

Suzuki GB Phase One faltered after only half an hour when a simple crash cost them four laps and left them in last place. After battling back to the top ten, a brake problem and then a collision with another bike dropped them down the standings again.

Police Nationale were competing for the lead of the race until just after three o’clock in the morning, at half race distance. Their engine suffered a terminal failure and they were forced to retire from a race which they had felt they had a good chance of winning.

Fourth place went to Yamaha GMT94 and fifth to Yamaha Endurance Moto 38. The two YZF-R1 teams ran an incident free race but will be disappointed to have missed out on a podium position. Suzuki GB Phase One worked their way back to sixth place in the final hour of the race, but this result will see them slip further behind Zongshen 1 in the championship standings.

Seventh place in the race went to Yamaha Austria, who were running a more standard but more reliable engine than in previous rounds. The pressure will be on them to produce a result at the next round, their home event. In eighth place was the number eight Kawasaki of Bolliger Team, and rounding out the top ten were the two junior teams. Phase One Juniors finished a lap ahead of the Trackdaze 11 Juniors despite pressure during the closing hours.

Only four teams did not complete the race, despite its very competitive nature and the demands of the Albacete circuit. This was the first time that Zongshen have scored a first and second position in the same race.

Press Conference Quotes:

Zongshen No.1 – Warwick Nowland: “We had break problems in warm-up and at the start of the race. We’d fitted a new system for the race; a gamble that didn’t quite come off but it ended up working quite well. It felt different to the system used in qualifying so I had no confidence.”

Zongshen No.1 – Stephane Mertens: “This is a very demanding track – very technical. The most difficult thing for me was keeping 100% concentration; this was very important.”

Zongshen No.1 – Igor Jerman: “The only problem I had was with the suspension, but the bike got better and better with time. At the end it was quite good – maybe we should do some longer races with this set-up…”

Zongshen No.2 – Piergiorgio Bontempi: “I’m happy with second place because we had some problems during the race; with brake pads and a couple of stop and go penalties for speeding in pit lane. The biggest problem was the temperature.”

Zongshen No.2 – Bruno Bonhuil: “The circuit was very tiring, but the illumination was good. This first and second place is a great result for the team after five years of trying.”

Folch Endurance – Javier Rodriguez: “It was difficult to compete with the World Endurance teams; our refuelling was not so fast, for example.”

Folch Endurance – Oriol Fernandez: “It was very difficult to stay with the championship teams in the first hour; we made the wrong tyre choice and they went off after thirty minutes.”

Folch Endurance – David Tomas: “My mission was to always try and do the same lap times as my team mates – to keep us competitive.”

2003, July 29
Race Result – Top Ten

1st: Suzuki Zongshen 1 (Nowland – Mertens – Jerman) CHN

2nd: Suzuki Zongshen No.2 (Bonhuil – Bontempi – Lerat) CHN – 1 lap

3rd: Yamaha Folch Endurance (Fernandez – Tomas – Rodriguez) SPA – 30 seconds

4th: Yamaha GMT94 (Scarnato – Holon – Foti) FRA – 4 laps

5th: Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 (Brian – Morrillon – Cuzin) FRA – 6 laps

6th: Suzuki GB Phase One (Lindstrom – Ellison D – Ellison J.) GBR – 12 laps

7th: Yamaha Austria (Truchsess – Wilding – Saiger) AUT – 13 laps

8th: Kawasaki Bolliger Team (Kellenberger – Stamm – Nystrom) SUI – 15 laps

9th: Suzuki Phase One Junior (Fincher – Jessop – Notman) GBR – 20 laps

10th: Suzuki Trackdaze 11 (Falcke – Hutchins – Pilborough) GBR – 21 laps

Championship Standings – Top Ten

1. Zongshen 1, CHN, Suz GSX-R1000, 91 points

2. Suzuki GB – Phase One, GBR, Suz GSX-R1000, 66 points

3. Zongshen 2, CHN, Suz GSX-R1000, 45 points

4. Yamaha GMT94, FRA, Yam YZF-R1, 43 points

5. 22 Police Nationale, FRA, Suz GSX-R1000, 33 points

6. Bolliger Team, SUI, Kaw ZX-9R, 28 points

7. Trackdaze 11, GBR, Suz GSX-R1000, 26 points

8. Yamaha Austria Racing Team, AUT, Yam YZF-R1, 25 points

9. Yamaha Endurance Moto 38, FRA, Yam YZF-R1, 24 points

10. Phase One Junior, GBR, Suz GSX-R1000, 20 points