Suzuki Endurance Racing Teams wins in Albacete ahead of Suzuki Catala and Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland Current World Champion Suzuki Endurance Racing Team won the “6 Horas Nocturnas de Albacete”. Vincent Philippe, Julien da Costa and Guillaume Dietrich went through the six hours race with a lead of two laps over Spanish private team Suzuki Catala (Josep Sarda, Kenny Noyes and Bernat Martinez) and the Swiss of Bolliger Switzerland Team (David Morillon, Patric Muff and Horst Saiger). For a long time Yamaha Austria Racing Team was a contender for the podium, but ended up in fourth place after Steve Martin and Igor Jerman had crashed. However, YART managed to stay ahead of Endurance Moto 38 and Qatar Endurance Racing Team IJT. The Suzuki of QERT IJT finished in sixth place and first in the Superstock class. The team is now leading the Superstock FIM World Cup. Like YART, Maco Moto Racing Team lost some ground after the crash of Jason Pridmore and took the seventh place just ahead of Team Kawasaki France, which was delayed when Erwan Nigon and Julien Mazuecos went off the track. Kawasaki France finished eighth. RT Racing Moto Virus and team LTG 57, second Superstock machine, complete the top ten. In eleventh place, YMES Folch Endurance lost a spot on the podium after Pedro Valcaneras crashed at mid-race. The permanent Spanish team was however in the leading battle during the first hour of the race. ABG Performance finished in twelfth position and third in the Superstock class. The race had a high number of crashes due to permanent and heavy rainfalls. Those “6 Horas Nocturnas” were certainly the wettest of all history of racing in Albacete. During six hours, all the teams had to face a cold rain, which was quite unexpected at this time of the year in Spain. The racers had even to start behind the safety car for two laps due to the bad weather, for safety reasons. Many teams had to retire following crashes, such as Phase One Endurance which was then holding the third place. Raffin Motos had the same disappointment: they were still holding a fantastic fourth place just half an hour before the end of the race. Midi Pyrénées MV Agusta, Diablo 666 Bolliger and Amadeus X-One La Fortezza are all on the long list of teams who had to retire after a crash. The next event of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship will take place in July 27th: the 8 Hours of Suzuka. More, from a press release issued by Suzuki Racing: SERT EXTENDS ENDURANCE LEAD Team Suzuki Press Office – May 11. Defending World Endurance Champions Suzuki Endurance Racing Team have extended their lead in the 2008 championship by taking victory at the 6 Horas Nocturnas de Albacete in Spain. Vincent Philippe, Julien Da Costa and Guillaume Dietrich race their GSX-R1000 to a two-lap victory ahead of Spanish privateers Josep Sarda, Kenny Noyes and Bernat Martinez of the Suzuki Catala team and Bolliger Switzerland’s David Morillon, Patric Muff and Horst Saiger. For a long time Yamaha Austria Racing Team was a contender for the podium, but ended up in fourth place after Steve Martin and Igor Jerman crashed. However, YART managed to stay ahead of Endurance Moto 38 and Qatar Endurance Racing Team IJT. The Suzuki of QERT IJT finished in sixth place and first in the Superstock class. The team is now leading the Superstock FIM World Cup. The race had a high number of crashes due to permanent and heavy rainfalls and the “6 Horas Nocturnas” was the wettest of all history of racing in Albacete. During six hours, the teams had to face a cold rain, unusual for this time of the year in Spain, and the safety car was brought out for two laps due to the bad weather. The next event of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship will take place in July 27th: the 8 Hours of Suzuka in Japan. Provisional Results: 1 SERT (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 177 laps, 2 Suzuki Catala (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 175, 3 Bolliger Team Switzerland (Kawasaki) 175, 4 Yamaha Austria Racing (Yamaha) 173, 5 Endurance Moto 38 (Yamaha) 172, 6 Maco Moto 38 (Yamaha) 171, 7 Team Kawasaki France (Kawasaki) 171, 8 RT Racing Team Motovirus (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 170, 9 YMES Folch Endurance (Yamaha) 170, 10 RMT 21 Racing Team (Honda) 170. More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing: Race results Albacete 6 Hours. Albacete, Spain, May 11, 2008 Pos / Team / Riders / Bike / Time / Laps 1 / SUZUKI ENDURANCE R.T. / PHILLIPE-Dietrich-DaCosta / SUZUKI GSXR100 / 6:01:09.291 / 177 2 / SUZUKI CATALA / SARDA-Noyes-Martínez / SUZUKI GSXR100 / 6:01:38.152 / 175 3 / BOLLIGER T.SWITZERLAND / MORILLON-Muff-Saiger / KAWASAKI ZX10R / 6:02:01.828 / 175 4 / Y.AUSTRIA RACING TEAM / JERMAN-Martin-Plater / YAMAHA R1 / 6:01:10.547 / 173 5 / END.MOTO 38 YAMAHA / MILLET-Brivet-Gantner / YAMAHA R1 / 6:01:36.447 / 172 6 / MACO MOTO R.T. / NOWLAND-Pridmore / YAMAHA R1 / 6:02:05.878 / 171 7 / KAWASAKI FRANCE / MAZUECOS-Nigon-Carrasco / KAWASAKI ZX10 / 6:01:13.555 / 170 8 / R.T.R.T.E MOTOVIRUS / DEVOYON-Chevre / SUZUKI GSXR100 / 6:01:59.699 / 170 9 / YMES FOLCH END. / RIBALTA-Vallcaneras-Tomás / YAMAHA R1 / 6:02:58.859 / 170 10 / RMT 21 R. / SEIDEL-Lozano-Miksovsky / HONDA CBR1000 / 6:03:09.745 / 165 11 / ENDURANCE MOTO 74 / GUICHON-Durieux-Fontes / YAMAHA R1 / 6:02:17.986 / 164 12 / MCS RACING / HOGAN-Rowley / SUZUKI GSXR100 / 6:01:19.495 / 162 13 / CD ZONA ROJA / LOPETEGUI,A.-Gil-Lopetegui,M. / YAMAHA R1 / 6:02:02.000 / 151 Pos. / Team / Nat. / Bike / Total Points 1 / SUZUKI ENDURANCE RACING TEAM 1 / FRA / SUZUKI GSX-R 1000 / 53 2 / SUZUKI ENDURANCE RACING TEAM 2 / FRA / SUZUKI GSX-R 1000 / 35 3 / BOLLIGER TEAM SWITZERLAND / SUI / KAWASAKI ZX10-R / 30 4 / TEAM ACROPOLIS MOTO EXPERT / FRA / YAMAHA R1 / 22 5 / RMT 21 RACING TEAM / GER / HONDA 1000 CBR / 21 6 / RT RACING TEAM MOTOVIRUS / ITA / SUZUKI GSX-R 1000 / 21 7 / SUZULI CATALANA / ESP / SUZUKI GSX-R 1000 / 20 8 / INFINI TEAM YOHANN MOTO SPORT / FRA / SUZUKI GSX-R 1000 / 18 9 / ENDURANCE MOTO 38 / FRA / YAMAHA R1 / 18 10 / YMES FOLCH ENDURANCE / ESP / YAMAHA R1 / 17 11 / YAMAHA AUSTRIA RACING TEAM / AUT / YAMAHA R1 / 13 12 / AM MOTO RACING / FRA / SUZUKI GSX-R 1000 / 11 13 / MACO MOTO RACING / SVK / YAMAHA R1 / 10 14 / TEAM KAWASAKI FRANCE / FRA / KAWASAZKI ZX10R / 9 15 / PHASE ONE ENDURANCE / FRA / YAMAHA R1 / 8 More, from a press release issued by Steve Plater’s publicist: STEVE PLATER SCORES FOURTH AT ALBACETE Despite leading the race for some considerable time, Steve Plater was not able to turn this into the victory he deserved at the end of the six-hour World Endurance race at Albacete in Spain. But he did finish in a credible fourth place even though both his teammates, Steve Martin and Igor German suffered crashes during their stint on the Yamaha Austria Race Team (YART) machine on Saturday. Free practice and qualifying took place over Friday and Saturday in differing weather conditions with the YART team eventually securing a third place for the start of the six-hour endurance race. “I have been to very few tests or races this year without encountering either snow or rain and Albacete has been no different. Every session here has been run in differing conditions, no real heavy rain through qualifying, it’s just been damp and slippery all the time,” said Plater. As the race got underway it was Steve Plater that ran across pit lane for the Le Mans start. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and the rain was coming down in torrents but Plater got his head down and after four laps he was leading the field. He held the lead throughout his one and a half hour stint before handing over to Steve Martin. Both he and German suffered crashes during their time on the bike but the team was able to maintain fourth position at the changeover with Plater taking over the reins for the last 80 minutes to bring the bike home safely in fourth place. “The rain teemed down throughout the whole six hours,” said Plater. “We also had the pace car out for a while because of oil on the track and that coupled with the rain did spoil things for all of us. I won here last year and I was hoping to repeat that this time, but it just didn’t work out for us. But under the circumstances I am happy enough with fourth place and we have at least got a foot on the ladder regarding championship points.” Plater now heads to Ireland with AIM Yamaha to contest the annual North West 200 races where he has won the Superbike race on three previous occasions. Practice is run on Tuesday and Thursday prior to racing on Saturday. Plater will contest the Superbike race and the high profile North West 200 Superbike race on the Yamaha R1 plus the Supersport race on the Yamaha R6.