This morning, the 59 teams of the 24 2019 Heures Motos (April 20-21, 2019) returned to the track for the second series of qualifying practices. This was marked by numerous improvements.
The blue drivers began with a 30-minute session during which the bar was set very high in 1'36.232 by the #6 BMW of Kenny Foray in front of another Bavarian machine, but this one is SuperStock! Clearly, the German machines had gotten up early in the morning...
Among the yellows, Germany was once again in the spotlight, but this time with the pilot Marvin Fritz who was the fastest on the YART Yamaha #7. His time nevertheless remained 1 tenth slower than that of the BMW #6 achieved previously.
A little before noon, we expected a lot from the red riders, but if the Yamaha #333 continues to amaze, in this case here with Xavier Simeon on his handlebars, no one was able to beat the time of the first session done in the cold.
In the end, the #6 BMW entered by the ERC – BMW Motorrad Endurance Team took pole position thanks to a virtual time of 1'36''597. This is the 2nd fastest pole position since the introduction in 2011, on the 4,185 km circuit, of the system establishing pole position on the average of the three best times achieved by the 3 drivers.
In the Superstock category, it was the BMW #56 of the GERT56 by GS YUASA team of Julian Puffe, Pepijn Bijsterbosch and Lucy Glöckner which achieved pole position in 1'37''878. Remember that this bike won its class at the last edition of the Bol d'Or last September. “The team and my teammates were impeccable. Consistency of lap times and perfection of pit stops will be the keys to the race”, believes Lucy Glöckner. The #33 Kawasaki of Team 33 Coyote Louit Moto and the #50 Suzuki of Motors Events complete the top three in a very tough Superstock category.
Finally, the #17 Kawasaki of the ITeM 17 team dominated the Experimental category. This machine is driven by Gabriel Pons, Matthieu Thibault and Alex Sarrabayrouse. “We want to finish first in our category but above all to go to the end of the race. The best would be to enter the first 20 of the general classification », confides Matthieu Thibault.
The #6 BMW of Team ERC – BMW Motorrad Endurance will be in pole position tomorrow, Saturday, for the 42nd edition of the 24 Heures Motos, which will start at 15 p.m.
The 59 machines from this second round of the 2018-2019 FIM EWC Endurance World Championship season will be back on track on Saturday from 9:40 a.m. to 10:25 a.m. for the warmup. The start of the 42nd edition will be given at 15 p.m. by Jorge Viegas, president of the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM).
For more information on the 24 Heures Motos race, go to lemans.org.
