After a race conducted with authority, the YART Yamaha won the 8 Hours of Slovakia Ring ahead of the GMT94 Yamaha and the FCC TSR Honda France which remains at the head of the FIM EWC world championship.
The duel between the two official Yamahas lasted until the end of the Slovak night. The YART Yamaha finally won with less than 32 seconds ahead of the GMT94 Yamaha. The Austrian Yamaha, which scored its first points of the season, took command after 1 hour 30 minutes of racing. Broc Parkes, Marvin Fritz and Max Neukirchner were able to manage and control the race despite electronic problems and resist the efforts of the GMT94 Yamaha with David Checa, Niccolò Canepa and Mike Di Meglio. Faced with the pace imposed by the two leading machines, the FCC TSR Honda France put up good resistance with Freddy Foray, Alan Techer and Josh Hook. Freddy Foray also sets the new best lap in the race in 2'04.185. This 3e place at the 8 Hours of Slovakia Ring allows the FCC TSR Honda France to remain at the top of the provisional ranking of the 2017-2018 FIM EWC world championship by only one point ahead of the GMT94 Yamaha.
At the foot of the podium, another CBR 1000 RR had a good run. Honda Endurance Racing has been battling in the leading pack for a long time and is ahead of the BMWs from NRT48 with Kenny Foray, Stefan Kerschbaumer and Peter Hickman and from Mercury Racing with Karel Hanika, Jakub Smrž and Matej Smrž.
Favorites mistreated again
The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team finished in 7e position in the wake of Mercury Racing after a delicate race. First delayed by a stop & go penalty imposed due to the absence of marking on a tire yesterday in qualifying (20 tire stickers granted in EWC and 13 in Superstock for an 8 hour race), Vincent Philippe, Etienne Masson and Gregg Black experienced braking issues similar to those encountered at Le Mans.
The Bolliger Team Switzerland (Roman Stamm, Robin Mulhauser and Sébastien Suchet) finished in 8the ranked ahead of the official ZX-10R of Team SRC Kawasaki. The #11 Kawasaki was one of the favorites but a crash by Randy de Puniet at the start of the race then a fuel shortage after 5 hours of racing caused him to lose contact with the Top 5.
Twists and turns also in Superstock
Yamaha Viltaïs Experiences, the best Superstock scores in 10e position on arrival. Axel Maurin, Florian Alt and Vincent Lonbois are ahead of the Suzuki of Atomic 68 entrusted to Clément Stoll, Guillaume Antiga and Stéphane Egéa, although affected by a fall at the start of the race. The Gert56 inherits from the 3e step of the podium after a very eventful end of the race in Superstock which affected two leaders in the category. Tati Team Beaujolais Racing was delayed by a fuel shortage but finished 5e Superstock and retains the lead in the provisional ranking. Fate also affected the Le Mans Sud Suzuki Junior Team who saw their dreams of a podium disappear with an engine failure 10 minutes before the checkered flag.
In this category, another favorite, Moto Ain, lost all his chances of victory at the start of the race with the fall of Roberto Rolfo. Moto Ain finishes 6e in Superstock.
In this category, the final will be decided at the next round of the FIM EWC championship, the 8 Hours of Oschersleben in Germany on Saturday June 9.
