FIM Endurance: Bol d'Or Endurance Race At Magny-Cours September 15 and 16 The Bol d'Or, the fifth round of the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship is the last 24hr course of the 2007 season with 35 points up for grabs. Taking place at Magny-Cours on the 15th and 16th September, the race will be particularly important in determining which team will take the title.
The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team will start at Magny-Cours 32 points ahead of their closest rivals Team Kawasaki France. Since the start of the season SERT and TKF have fought it out for the top podium places. At Magny-Cours the competition is likely to be even more intense with the title up for the taking on this penultimate round of the World Championship.
As in the Le Mans 24hrs, Suzuki Endurance Racing Team will be racing two superbikes. The number one bike will be ridden by Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa, who won the 24 hours of Oschersleben on the 12th August. The second SERT which won the Le Mans 24hrs in front of Suzuki No.1, will be raced by William Costes, Guillaume Dietrich and Max Neurkirchner.
Kawasaki France are set to be represented by their top riders, Steve Plater, Gwen Giabbani and Julian Mazuecos. Kawasaki won at Albacete , finished third behind Suzuki at the Le Mans 24hrs, and second at Oschersleben despite two of their riders falling during the race. To support the Kawasaki no.11, Maccio racing will add a second ZX-10R to the race. Maccio's Kawasaki 111 will be ridden by Erwan Nigon who defected from Endurance Moto 38 along with his team-mate, Englishman Simon Andrews.
The third rider is still to be announced following expected rider Stuart Easton becoming injured during testing. A duel between Suzuki and Kawasaki is inevitable but there other teams in with a chance of a podium place include GMT 94 who will be looking for victory at the Bol d'Or despite not being in with winning the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship.The Yamaha 94 will race the same crew that finished fourth at Le Mans : David Checa, Sebastien Gimbert and Olivier Fort. Racing the Honda colours, the National Motor bikes team, Frederic Protat, Dani Ribalta and Denis Bouan.
Among the permanent teams, Yamaha Austria Racing Team, Bolliger Team Switzerland and Yamaha Phase One will be looking to get good results. Second placed at the 2006 Bol d'Or, YART will welcome back its Endurance specialist, frenchman Sebastien Scarnato who returns from injury to join Igor Jerman and Australian Steve Martin.
Bolliger Switzerland , who abandoned the 2006 Bol d'Or and Le Mans 2007, managed fourth place at Oschersleben with David Morillon, Patric Muff and Horst Saiger. All three riders will start at the Bol d'Or. Neither Bolliger or YART expect to win the title but will race for overall third place in the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship.
For Yamaha Phase One Endurance, the Bol d'Or is set to be a race of revenge. Having had an unlucky season, Phase One will try to forget its abandonment of racing at Oschersleben when third place was still in range. The English Yamaha team will be represented by Warwick Nowland, Glenn Richards and Didier Van Keymeulen. Endurance Moto 38 will see Erwan Nigon replaced by Fabrice Auger who will join Joao Contente Fernandes. The team will also replace Julien Millet who injured his hand during tests. The first Superstock team LTG 57 will have to defend his place in the Suzuki junior team.
