At the end of a very competitive race, with a fast pace (many laps in 1'59 on the Paul Ricard circuit), Mike and his teammates David Checa and Niccolo Canepa managed to win at the end of the 81st Bol Gold with the Yamaha R1 of Christophe Guyot's GMT94 Yamaha team. Here's how di Meglio experienced this victory during the great endurance classic.
You were leading the Bol with David Checa and Niccolo Canepa from the end of the second hour, fighting with the Suzuki du SERT, then with the Honda FCC, and you were only able to start breathing with a good lead until 'about halfway through the race. How did the first part of the Bol d'Or go for you and GMT94?
“Overall it went pretty well because during testing we were a little late with the suspension settings. We preferred to work on the race on worn tires than on qualifying. During the race we were a little unsure of which tires to use, but we went with a choice which turned out to be quite good. We tried to have an impeccable race. It went well, there was an immediate problem for the Kawa and several teams had problems at the start of the race. During the tests, we saw bikes that worked really hard, and in 24-hour races it's really complicated.
“In fact, we felt inferior to other machines, but hey, we were determined to go all the way. We gave our best. During our first three stints, we tried to get into the swing of things and it worked. Then, we gradually saw that we could get first place and we attacked harder and harder with my teammates to position ourselves first and try to open up a gap.
Then you had your dose of disappointments with three unfavorable pace car interventions (including two during refueling) and a stop & go. Did that undermine your morale a little?
“It didn't undermine our morale, but it's certain that when we give our all, when we're first, or close to the lead, or when we widen the gap, and suddenly we lose everything is hard. But we always believe, the race is never over. During my first season in endurance, I learned that it was never over, that you should never give up. You always have to go, it’s like it’s a fight. You never know how it will end. Sometimes everything can go well and something can happen in the last hour. Even if you are in the lead, you have to know how to put a little distance to have a little security in case of problems.
Sunday at 11:30 a.m. the Honda FCC fell, and the other Honda (the 111) was delayed by an alternator problem. What was your attitude when you found yourself alone in front?
“Before the FCC went down, we were second and we ran out of gas with Niccolo. So we found ourselves almost a minute behind the FCC and it was complicated. But we said to ourselves “we always believe in it, we push, we give our all”. I managed to shave 15-20 seconds off the FCC during a stint. Then the FCC collapsed. Is that the pressure we put on them? We don't know, but the fact that we never gave up meant that the other competitors were also forced to push hard. There was a mistake on their part, which allowed us to find ourselves in the lead with a certain comfort. But the race was not over because we were still three or four relays from the end. We attacked less then, we rolled up. We put less powerful maps to try to have as few problems as possible during the last hours.
Now that you have known each other for a year with David Checa and Niccolo Canepa, have you determined privileged roles for each, such as the one who goes for the time in qualifying, the one who goes faster in the wet, the one who starts, who finishes, the one who is more comfortable in this or that circumstance?
" Not especially. I know that I prefer to let my teammates start because I'm a little short and the R1 is still a fairly tall bike. I prefer to leave it to them because they do it very well. Afterwards it varies depending on the circuits, when sometimes one can feel better than another. When someone is in difficulty, we try to advise them as best we can so that the group is as homogeneous as possible. We share, to try to ensure that all three of us are as strong as possible.
With a World Champion title for your first season and your recent victory at the Bol d'Or, how do you feel about endurance?
“I am not World Champion in the drivers classification, but World Team Champion with the GMT. It was the last year where there was a drivers title and a team title. This year, with the same regulations I would have been World Champion. What happened the year before was that Lucas Mahias was World Champion, but my teammates weren't, which was very complicated. In teams, SERT was World Champion, but Lucas Mahias was the only World Champion driver. It was a bit weird. This year, my two teammates were World Champions and I finished third as a driver, while being World Champion with the GMT. It's a bit strange but this is the last year it's been like this.
“I gain experience as the races go on. The 24 hours of Le Mans went well. The Bol d'Or may have looked like a fairly easy race from the outside, but a lot happened. Monday morning, when we woke up with my teammates and Christophe, we were already in the strategy and all the points to work on and develop. We were happy with what we had done, but we wanted to progress on all these points to be even better, because faced with this year's competition, we must leave nothing behind, we must move forward, and I think that It is by doing this that the team will be even better and that we will have the possibility of being World Champion at the end of the season. »
Photos © Jean-François Muguet for GMT94 Yamaha, and FIM EWC
