EWC 24 Heures Motos: Yoshimura SERT wins the event after an almost perfect race!

Only a very small fuel outage about fifty meters from his box prevents us from writing that the Yoshimura SERT Motul team achieved THE perfect race during these 24 Hours Motorcycles 2022!

Otherwise, the official red and black GSX-R fully mastered this first race of the 2022 FIM Endurance World Championship, allowing Gregg Black, Xavier Siméon and Sylvain Guintoli to regain their place on the top step of the podium, as they did last year.

Between around thirty seconds lost at the start for the Yamaha YZF-R1 #7 from YART – Yamaha Official Team EWC, a safety car giving the Suzuki a small advantage, one less refueling and a finely oiled team, several factors allowed the Suzuki to play cat and mouse with the Yamaha, and maintain a one-lap advantage over the latter at the arrival. And this especially since, on the pure performance side, Hamamatsu's machine had nothing to envy of Iwata's, as evidenced by the race lap record of 1'36.195 set by Gregg Black.

Very good work from the team Damien Saulnier et Yohei Kato who show their know-how in a discipline where the slightest grain of sand destroys the work of an entire team: a big BRAVO!

1'45 behind, the Yamaha YZF-R1 #7 from YART – Yamaha Official Team EWC is very far from having failed but this pesky recurring starting problem linked to the Magneti Marelli Superbike electronics which requires energy that the battery has difficulty delivering, plus some refueling which could be improved, finally prevented it from fighting for the final victory. We can well imagine the frustration of Karel Hanika, Marvin Fritz and Niccolò Canepa, even if the big points scored in Sarthe will necessarily be important when it comes time to do the end-of-year accounts...

Frustration also for the Honda CBR1000RR-R #5 from FCC TSR Honda France who finished 14 laps down in the hands of Josh Hook, Gino Rea and Mike Di Meglio, following problems with the shifter, the exhaust and finally a fall of Gino Rea. But now, it's starting to do a lot to be able to compete for a victory, since endurance races have transformed into 24-hour sprints...

On the other hand, we can largely applaud the victory of the “firefighters” in Superstock, the Yamaha YZF-R1 #18 from Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers CMS Motostore ending squarely at the 4th place in the general classification ! A final position snatched by the force of the wrist by the trio Hugo Clere, Baptiste Guitter and Philipp Steinmayr in the face of fierce opposition from the Suzuki #44 No Limits Motor Team in the same turn, as well as the Honda National Motorcycles #55 and the Kawasaki #33 Louit Moto a little further at the end of the race after having fought valiantly for the command of the category.

Respect to all participants, from the first to the last, for having faced the extreme adventure that a 24-hour race represents, and see you on June 4 and 5 at Spa-Francorchamps for the revenge!