F.C.C. TSR Honda France qualifies in fourth place, in the title hunt at the 100th-anniversary Bol d’Or
Paul Ricard CircuitThe final round of the 2022 FIM Endurance World Championship takes place this weekend, from 17th to 18th September, at the prestigious Paul Ricard circuit, in the south of France, and it marks the 100-anniversary of Bol d’Or.
F.C.C. TSR Honda France is currently second in the provisional ranking, only 23 points behind the leader. The team is confident and determined to fight for the world championship title aboard the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.
Honda’s endurance specialists with Josh Hook, Mike Di Meglio and Alan Techer placed their Honda #5 fourth on the grid ahead of tomorrow’s 24-hour race after the two qualifying sessions.
For this final round, Techer is replacing the injured Gino Rea, who suffered a serious accident during the last race in Suzuka 8 Hours. The team got together today to send another message to Gino who continues his recovery. Frenchman Techer knows the team and the bike very well as he was part of the F.C.C. TSR Honda France team when they won the championship title in 2017/2018.
In the first qualifying session on Thursday, the Fireblade #5 was placed provisionally in second place, with Hook being the second fastest rider in his group with a time of 1.52.511 and the same for Di Meglio, who set a lap time of 1.52.630. Then Techer took the third position with a time of 1:53.159.
The Honda trio was the third fastest team on the track at the night session.
On Friday, again on a sunny track but with more windy conditions, Hook set the fourth fastest time, 1:52.155, during the second qualifying session. Di Meglio set a time of 1:52.953, which placed him fifth, same position as Techer who did 1:53.428.
Considering only the two best times, the combined qualifying times placed the CBR 1000RR-R Fireblade in the 4th position on the starting grid.
National Motos Honda set the third-best lap time in their category, 1:55.135. The solid trio of endurance riders, Sebastien and Valentin Suchet and Guillaume Raymond is convinced to get a good result with an excellent performance of the CBR 1000RR-R Fireblade and fight for the podium.
Privateers Honda RAC 41 Chromeburner signed the fifth fastest lap in the Superstock category, 1:55.554, and the team has high expectations to repeat the podium as they did last season. The race pace of the Fireblade is very good, and the three riders feel very confident on it in any conditions, even if it is hot or cold.
For this race, Chris Leesh and Wayne Tessels are sharing the saddle of the Honda #41 with a new rider Jonathan Hardt, a fastest Superstock rider who won Bol d’Or race last year.
The 100th-anniversary Bol d’Or race will be flagged of at 3pm (CEST) on Saturday, 17th September and finished at 3pm (CEST) on Sunday 18th September.
In the second qualifying, my lap time was very good with the old tyres, but when I changed to the new tyres, I thought I could make a big step, but my track position was bad, and with a lot of traffic, I didn’t end up going faster. Our race pace is really good and probably the strongest it has been this season. All the points are for grabs in the race, so we are really focused on that. Winning the race and the championship is the goal. 24 hours is a long time, a lot can happen, so we really have to stay calm and give it all.
It was a complicated qualifying session today and yesterday it was better. Today we tried different settings, especially for qualifying but it was not as expected. We know that our pace in the race is very good, the bike is working well, so we need to focus on tomorrow. I think we can do a good race; the race is long; we need to be fast and don’t make mistakes.
I am very happy to be here. I have been many years with Honda and I know the team as I won with them the EWC title 2018. I work very well with my teammates, the team helped me a lot and it gave me a lot of confidence with the Fireblade. The pace is good, the race rhythm is also good, so we need to think about the end of the race, lap by lap and stay constant. The bike is working very well, and with more wind today than yesterday, my target today was to know how to race in case of windy conditions for the 24-hours race.
