News 26 Jun 2017

GMT94 Yamaha makes it three straight in Slovakia

SERT squad of Alex Cudlin continues to lead championship.

Source: Supplied.

GMT Yamaha has won the inaugural 8 Hours of Slovakia Ring, pulling off a hat-trick in the FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) with a third-straight victory ahead of Suzuki Endurance Racing Team and Honda Endurance Racing.

David Checa, Niccolò Canepa and Mike Di Meglio steered their R1 to to win, beating the reigning champion SERT of Vincent Philippe, Etienne Masson and Alex Cudlin and Honda Endurance Racing’s Julien da Costa, Sébastien Gimbert and Freddy Foray.

Packed with high drama and incidents, the 8 Hours of Slovakia Ring turned out to be a suspense-filled race from start to finish. After Vincent Philippe’s masterly hole-shot for Suzuki, two Australians – Josh Hook of F.C.C. TSR Honda and Broc Parkes of YART Yamaha Official EWC Team – wrestled each other for the lead.

Following a cautious start due to the high track temperature, GMT94 Yamaha surged into the front-end fray, while SERT slipped back after briefly going off track and then getting a puncture. A little over three hours into the race, fate dealt its first blow as TSR Honda got held back by engine issues and they eventually finished the race in 21st place.

Then, when it looked like YART Yamaha Official EWC Team and GMT94 Yamaha would be battling for the win, YART suffered a three-lap delay after having to solve a chain adjuster issue. The Austrian Yamaha team just missed out on a podium place.

The road to the podium opened up for four teams that had been lying in wait – SERT, Maco Racing, Bolliger Team Switzerland and Honda Endurance Racing. Maco Racing was unable to grasp the nettle because of a crash and Bolliger Team Switzerland got held back by electrical issues.

In the end, the contest for runner-up position played out between SERT and Honda Endurance Racing. SERT prevailed, thereby holding on to its place at the top of the 2016-2017 provisional standings, with a mere one-point lead over GMT94 Yamaha ahead of the championship grand finale in Japan at the end of July.

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