Double delight for Honda teams at the 100th Bol d'Or
Paul Ricard CircuitF.C.C. TSR Honda France, 2022 FIM Endurance World Champions and RAC 41 Chromeburner winners in the Superstock category at the 100th Bol d'Or
F.C.C. TSR Honda France became the FIM World Endurance Champion for the second time in its history after finishing in fourth place at the 100th-anniversary of the Bol d'Or at Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet (France).
To win the title, the Honda team had to stay and finish at the front of this final round of the season. The three Honda riders, Josh Hook, Mike Di Meglio and Alan Techer set an extremely fast and regular pace during most of the race.
The F.C.C. TSR Honda France started the 24-hour race from fourth place on the starting grid, and an excellent start by French rider Mike Di Meglio immediately put the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP in the lead of the race during the first hours.
However, the Honda #5 equipped with Bridgestone tires, suffered some issues that temporarily compromised all chances for the title. At the third hour of the race, Techer had to enter the box to fix some issues with the oil cooler radiator that put the team back to 27th position.
Following the fighting spirit of the Honda team, the Honda endurance specialists showed a high level of determination and the team began an incredible comeback, placing the Honda Fireblade in fifth place after the first quarter of the race.
After half-point of the race, Techer had to enter again into the box for a second replacement of the exhaust but thanks to an excellent work from the team, the bike rejoined the race in the same position.
With very solid lap times and the formidable efficacy of the Fireblade #5, the team gained another position at the last quarter of the race finishing the race in fourth place.
Thanks to efficient teamwork during refuelling and a trio of consistent riders throughout the 24-hour race, the F.C.C. TSR Honda France team won its second World Endurance Championship title with a total of 154 points by finishing 4th in this 85th edition of the Bol d'Or.
Honda privateer RAC 41 Chromeburner, in an amazing performance of their CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP, took the victory in the Superstock class and 7th overall, having started the race from 17th on the grid.
The Honda trio Chris Leesh, Wayne Tessels and Jonathan Hardt, placed the Honda #41 in podium places after the first quarter of the race. Thanks to consistent and solid laps, the team took the lead at the race's final stages and the victory.
Meanwhile, National Motos Honda was forced to abandon the race due to an accident of the Swiss rider Valentin Suchet after the first quarter of the race. Suchet had a fall in turn 4 and needed medical assistance. Even the Fireblade #55 didn’t had any major damage, the team decided to abandon the race.
I have learned from the past to never take a result for granted before the chequered flag. We have come back from complicated situations in the past and nothing is ever certain. Like everyone else, we did our race and never gave up. We did very well, all three of us were fast, especially at night. We were quickly no longer in a position to fight for victory, so we focused on the championship, which was clearly the priority goal. We chose to take care of the engine as much as possible to avoid the problems that most of our competitors have. And it's done!
I'm very happy to finally be World Endurance Champion! I came so close with GMT94 and I'm really proud of this title after so many years of fighting for it. It was a really tough race. We had some problems and our opponents were forced to stop one after the other. When Tati Team #4 was fighting at the front, we decided to build up enough of a gap to our chaser to get out of trouble. But when they dropped down the rankings, we changed our strategy to preserve the engine as much as possible by shifting earlier on the straight. It was the best thing to do because the world championship was more important than a podium finish.
It was a complicated race for everyone, we also had some mechanical problems. The team worked hard to reduce the time spent in the pits and, with my teammates, we did our best to respect the race plan. The objective was clearly the title, and after the Suzuki's retirement, we battled with the Tati Team, my former team. This is a special emotion for me, because I win this title with the team that had already given me the chance to be champion in 2018. We also have a big thought for Gino to whom we dedicate this title.
It is very nice to get this victory at the 100th anniversary of Bol d’Or. We have been fighting for this for a long time, we scored some podiums and finally, we managed to get a victory. As usual, the Honda Fireblade works very well around the year, we knew from last year. We were lucky to have a good bike that was up to the task and let us push until the end because the gap was very close when we got into the last stint.The bike was running the whole time, which is the most important thing in the endurance racing and very happy with the performance of the Fireblade this weekend.
