FSBK VD53: Valentin Debise debriefing after his 4 victories at Le Mans

For more than 10 years we have had a special relationship with Valentine Debise on French or international circuits. It was therefore natural that we once again opened our columns to him to share his adventure in the French FSBK Championship, in which the Albigensian is once again aiming for the title in Supersport 600 and Superbike 1000.

After his four victories at Le Mans aboard his new Yamahas, the one we nicknamed VD53 but who now bears the number #153 reveals to us today the broad outlines of his project which remains simply extraordinary, in the first sense of the term.

We will find him again after the next event at Nogaro, and it will be like this throughout a season in which the former Grand Prix driver (but not only), is once again aiming for the two major titles of the French FSBK Championship.

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Valentin, like last year you have just won the two Superbike races and the two Supersport races at Le Mans. It remains extraordinary, but this time the conditions were different since you lined up with your own motorcycles. Why this change?
Valentine Debise : " This year, I am participating in the French championship with my personal structure. I had put it in place over the years to the tests I carry out for Michelin, using my own bikes and my team. So it was above all a testing structure rather than a racing structure, even if I had used it one year to participate in a final in Albi with a Suzuki. Last year, I did the entire season of the French Supersport 600 championship with this structure with the Kawasaki, and as a result, this year, we enlarged the structure to accommodate an additional motorcycle, to be able to race in Superbike. We also changed brands in favor of Yamaha, both in 600 and 1000, and both equipped with Michelin. »

If we compare to other teams who sometimes arrive with semi-trailers, it still remains an old-fashioned structure. Isn't that a handicap?
« No, because we are small but professional, in the sense that most of the work rests on my shoulders: it's me who prepares the motorcycles in the workshop, even if we keep the stock engines, as well in 600 than 1000, which already takes away a lot of work. Afterwards, there is still all the preparation of the chassis and the rest, including the layout of the box, which takes quite a bit of time, plus the search for technical and financial partners as well as the general organization of travel and mechanics. . So a lot of work falls on my shoulders but everyone is professional in the team, and when we arrive at the circuits, I delegate everything to the mechanics. I have a mechanic per motorcycle plus an engineer, and they are trustworthy people who know what they have to do, so it runs like clockwork. Basically, I prepare everything well in advance, so that everything is ready in the event of an unforeseen event, like a fall: the parts are ready to be assembled, everyone has their own tools, everything is really well separated between the 600 and the 1000 in the box, so we can say that we are amateurs who work professionally. »

So after this organizational work, we arrive at Le Mans, the first round of the French championship, and there, repeat, you win the four races in which you participate, like last year. This remains out of the ordinary, not to say extraordinary, and last season you explained this by more winter driving than the main opponents. Is this still the case this year?
« No, because because of the delay I took in setting up the structure, I was not able to train as I wanted, both as a driver and as a team. So the first time I was able to ride the motorcycles was three weeks ago: we went for a week to different circuits to be able to ride. So as a driver, I'm not as ready as last year, especially since we saw that my main competitors drove a lot more than the previous year, going to Le Mans or in Spain. So I wasn't surprised to see that the general level at Le Mans was much faster than last year, which is good. Furthermore, apart from Alan Techer, my main opponents have not changed bikes or tire manufacturers. They know their teams well, they know their bike, their tires, the settings well, in short they are already set up while we are really starting from scratch with the new bikes, a new person in the team, and the tires of the 1000 which are now Michelin. That's still a lot of new stuff, and we're therefore less sharp than we could have been for the first meeting at Le Mans. »

One thing that is also more difficult than last year is how Sunday goes…
« Indeed, last year I already participated in four races on Sunday, but the difference is that there was a race between the 600 and the 1000. So I still had time to get to the podium , to have a drink, to change, to rest, etc. There, not only do the 600 and the 1000 follow each other but the time between two races has been noticeably shortened. So in concrete terms, I don't slow down in the deceleration lap, I do it at full speed, and when I put my 600 in the parc ferme, I have exactly 3 minutes and 50 seconds left to get on the 1000! I just have time to drink a few sips and swallow a gel, and when I arrive at the starting grid, where previously we had 10 minutes, there are only five minutes left before the start since the procedures are shortened at maximum. Honestly, it's a bit crazy... »

Isn't this sequence of races too hard physically, especially for the fourth which corresponds to the second Superbike race?
« In terms of physicality, it's okay because I'm well prepared, but it's more in terms of concentration that it's demanding, in order to stay super precise and not make any mistakes throughout the race. Despite everything, it's not an endurance race but speed races, so the intensity is much higher than in an endurance race where the guys follow each other in relays. So it's the concentration level that's the hardest, but in training I do worse than that. On the other hand, perhaps reinserting a race between the 600 and the 1000 to highlight young people to the public, which has been happening for 20 years, would undoubtedly be a good idea. Not to mention my case, drawing public attention to the younger generation would make sense. »

Tell us a little about your main opponents because if in Superbike they are always the same, in Supersport the category has still changed…
« Yes. In Supersport, there is Matthieu Lussiana who went down: he has really got back into shape and he is riding really well! It's very good that he returned to this category because he is an experienced boy who allows young people to have a comparison of levels. There is also Loïc Arbel who returned from Spain, and who is therefore not well known in France but he is a boy that I have been following for some time and who is doing well. There is Matthieu Gregorio who continues to progress and who is starting to ride very hard. We also have some young people who come from the 300, like Enzo de la Vega, who will progress during the season and who, I think, will come and play with us. It's good to see that there are motivated young people who are succeeding, then we should try to make sure there are a few more. During the practice sessions, if I have the opportunity, I always try to pull a kid and signal him to follow me so that he can see roughly what I'm doing. Even if it's not much, it can still help. It's also a shame that Ludovic Cauchy left in 1000 because I think he really would have been a candidate for the title, given the progression he had. »

A bit of a stupid question, but how do you see the rest of the season?
« For the rest, I think we will have to do a few tests before going to Nogaro because we are still far from being ready on both bikes. Knowing that we are running with stock engines, we need to have really good suspension to make up for our lack of power. But we know that we still have room for improvement since Michelin has brought new tires which work really well but which are not yet in perfect cohesion with our suspensions. Technically, we need to adjust to be able to use the maximum potential of these tires, but as a rider, I also need to get more used to the bikes, because it's still very new. Afterwards, financially, even if I am very grateful to all my partners who allowed me to set up this project, the current budget does not allow me to finish the season, especially since there are sometimes differences between the speeches and the actions. So there are still places on the motorbikes and on the suit to experience this great adventure together! »

The call is launched, and we hope that it will be heard by one or more Paddock-GP readers able to appreciate the chivalrous side of your participation in a sometimes very sanitized world...

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