MENU
HOME
YOUR HOST
RACING PEOPLE
MACAU GP
BIKE SET-UP
CJM RADIO
RACING LINKS
CONTACT
FORUM

FRONT PAGE ARCHIVES
WORLD ENDURANCE TEAMS
WORLD ENDURANCE ROUNDS

2011
MONZA

Albacete 12 Horas Nocturnas - 28th/29th June 2003

Pictures at the bottom of the page!

Not an auspicious start for a couple of teams - Christophe Guyot, Team Manager of GMT94 had his car broken into at a Spanish petrol station on the way down, Zongshen's Bruno Bonhuil had his laptop computer stolen from his hotel room in Albacete and the team had their Champions Trophy stolen from the circuit, though it was recovered.

Loads of crashes in practice for Albacete; so many, that teams were in danger of running out of bodywork. The Bollinger Kawasaki and Yamaha Austria team had two crashes each, Bollinger bending a a frame as Yamaha Austria wrecked yet another engine – and both GMT94’s Ludovic Holon and Yamaha Austria’s Erwin Wilding crashed after running over snakes on the circuit.

Phase One's strategy, therefore, was suspected to be – take it easy and wait for everyone else to crash.

Qualifying in 3^rd place was the open class No.20 Yamaha R1 of Spanish Endurance wildcards Team Folch. In second place with a guest Spanish rider, the Police Nationale No.22 Suzuki team thought they could win. In first it was Zongshen again – but no Warwick Nowland. Piergiorgio Bontempi put the No.2 Suzuki on pole.

The Folch Endurance team thought that with their local knowledge, they could win here – and the French Police team were confident of their first-ever podium, possibly the win with the help of Spanish rider Eduard Ullastres. The Zongshen No.1 bike was 4^th and less than 7/10ths of a second covered the first 4 teams.

Both the No.12 Fagersjol-El team and the No.11 Trackdaze teams had new and unproven riders for this event. Trackdaze had rider Nick Pilborough who, at 6ft 2in and also high podium places in Junior Superstocks in the UK was hoping to do well – but Peter Wegscheider was an unknown on the Swedish Fagersjol-El Yamaha and there were question marks about his racing credentials. I think he raced in the Kawasaki 636 series in Austria but I haven't been able to find out anything else about him...anyway, Nik Carlberg was desperate, having lost Andi Notman to Phase One, and took a chance. Even Jeff Collins, the Trackdaze Team Manager helped out, helping Fagersjol-El qualify.

START OF THE RACE

                        Eduard Ullastres on the Police No.22 got the lead, ahead of GMT94, the Folch No.20. LMJ Moto38, Zongshen No.1, both Phase One Suzukis, Zongshen No.2 and James Agombar on the Trackdaze No.10 machine and it was clear from the start that the two Spanish riders were trying to make an early break on the pack.

By the second lap Ullastres had lapped at 1 minute 34.28 seconds on the No.22 Police Suzuki. Both the Police bike and the wildcard Folch Endurance Yamaha No.20 had opened a 4 second gap over GMT94, LMJ Moto38, Phase One No.3 and both Zongshen Suzukis.

The gap to the leading two bikes didn’t get any wider as the full-time teams started getting into their stride and as the light started to go it was Piergiorgio Bontempi who was first to mount a serious challenge to the Police 22 in 1^st and the Folch Yamaha in 2^nd – and the gap was starting to close.

Bontempi on the No.2 Suzuki then opened a gap on 4^th place and as the two Spaniards fought over 1^st place and although Ullastres on the No.22 and Fernandez on the Folch No.20 were running at Superbike pace, it was yet to be seen if they could keep that kind of speed going for 12 hours.

By lap 12 Bontempi had taken 2^nd place, on lap 14 he was in the lead with Warwick Nowland up to 3^rd and splitting the Spaniards.

Bontempi brought the now leading Zongshen No.2 in for Bruno Bonhuil to take over, tyres changed and refueled – and as each rider is a different size, a stick-on seat pad for Bruno – but in the pit next door, the start of a whole raft of problems for Phase One – normally safe rider Jimmy Lindstrom had crashed the No.3 Suzuki with Team Manager Russell Benney gutted that their 3^rd place had gone and was putting a brave face on the fight over the next 3 hours to get the Suzuki back into the top ten.

The Zongshen No.2 Suzuki was leading with the Spanish Folch Yamaha No.20 in second, the Nowland, Mertens and Jerman team on the Zongshen No.1 in 3^rd. The Police 22 was 4^th, then GMT94, LMJ Moto38, Yamaha Austria 9, Jet Suzuki in 8^th, Bollinger Kawasaki 9^th and the Phase One Junior team of Fincher, Jessup and Notman in 10^th with Trackdaze No.11 just behind them and the No.3 Phase One team already back up to 14^th.

The Folch Yamaha wildcards were Spanish Endurance champions, their speed and local track knowledge kept them only 10 seconds behind the leaders – but the Police 22 team were chasing as well, for their first ever podium place; they were 4^th and keeping the top 3 in sight.

By 1 o’clock in the morning the Folch No.20 had been passed by both the No.1 Zongshen Suzuki and the Police Nationale No.22, the Police getting into 2^nd and only 8 seconds from taking over the lead of the race. There had only been one retirement so fat, the No.56 Motomista Honda Fireblade with camshaft failure.          

And just before 3am the Police 22 Suzuki rattled into the pits with a suspected con-rod failure. The mechanics looked everywhere for the engine's oil - it wasn't in the sump, in the exhaust, in the airbox or on the track (if anybody know's where it is, email me and I'll pass the info on :) and the Police had lost their best chance yet of a podium place.

We had also lost the Swedish Fagersjol-El team. Wegsheider had come into the pits 20min before the end of his first relay complaining about the tyres - Nik took over and was immediately up to speed, so no tyre problem...strange...Nik then did his relay and handed over to Wegsheider who trundled back to the pits after half an hour...something must be very wrong, thought manager Nik. Nope, Wegsheider had just come in to get off for a stretch...as you can imagine, Nik Carlberg was anything but happy. After some more slow laps from Wegscheider,  Nik Carlberg had had enough and decided to pull out of the race but before he could pull his rider in, Wegscheider crashed the No.12 Yamaha.

Later, I found out that at about the same time, Jimmy Lindstrom had crashed the Phase One bike AGAIN (unheard of for Jimmy)...he had apparently been T-boned by a very slow rider and he was fuming...I wonder who that slow rider was??

By the early hours of the morning, the Zongshen Suzukis where 1 and 2 but there were more problems for Phase One, this time with Junior team’s No.6 machine. The Beringer brakes have been great for the past few seasons but this year it seems that something has gone awry, first Zongshen and now Phase One having to do a complete brake change because of dropped-out brake pistons. The World Endurance teams use extra-thick pads to last longer and when they are at the end of their life the pistons which squeeze them onto the discs are nearly out of their seats...anyway, with hot hydraulic fluid pouring out, the No.6 had to have a completely new set of front brakes fitted. One of the most experienced and professional teams in World Endurance was having more than it’s fair share of problems

After 230, it was Zongshen 1 and 2, then the Folch Yamaha, GMT94 in 4^th, then LMJ Moto38 and Phase One No.6

Then a VERY scary moment for Zongshen – a fuel line had split, spilling liters of fuel in front of the pits. Zongshen Manager Michael Marqueton was told by the circuit firemen that sand was on the way...I never saw it but DID see the firemen hosing water into the drains...wonderful, that just spreads the fuel on the surface of cold water and everyone down the pitlane could have been threatened. Anyway, we were lucky that nothing untoward happened.

The Folch Endurance Yamaha No.20 had lost time to the two Zongshen Suzukis but was lapping consistently 2 laps ahead of GMT94 in 4^th place.

As dawn was breaking, it was still the flying Zongshen Suzukis, numbers 1 and 2 in 1^st and 2^nd places, separated by 2 laps, the fuel spill in the pits luckily not affecting their places. The Folch Yamaha in 3^rd a further lap down, then GMT94 Yamaha 5 laps off the lead, LMJ Moto38 6 laps down. The Phase One No.3 Suzuki held 6^th place, 9 laps off the lead with the Yamaha Austria No.9 a lap behind them and the Phase One Junior team No.6 had slipped to 9^th.

As the sun came up, the No14 Jet Suzuki, just out of the top ten in 13^th place crashed – but the bikes engine just wouldn’t restart and it had to be pushed back to the pits. The tip-over switch is a safety measure which cuts off all the electrics if the bike is on it’s side. It should re-set itself when the bike is upright again – but clearly on the Jet Suzuki, this didn’t happen.

It was now a straight dash for the podium, the Folch Endurance No.20 still 3^rd and one minute behind 2^nd place and with Zongshen No.2’s fastest rider on board, it was clear that, barring any last minute problem, 3^rd was the best that the Spanish team could hope for.

But there seemed to be a problem. Lying 2^nd Bontempi was deemed to have exceeded the speed limit in the pit lane and had to do a stop-and-go. Piergiorgio himself needed to come in – something had happened to his back. So, the stop-and-go, another lap – and Bontempi was in, having to be carried from the bike with evidently some major back problem. Bruno Bonhuil had to dash but was ready to take over from the hurting Italian rider.

So, with that stop-and-go, Folch Endurance had a chance to claw back some of that minutes difference between 3^rd and 2^nd (wasn't that just a BIT suspicious?)– and Bruno Bonhuil also wanted to close the gap to 1^st place, so in the last hour all the top three raised their lap times significantly – but the positions didn’t change. Once again, controlling the race from the front, it was the Zongshen Suzuki No.1 of Stephane Mertens, Igor Jerman and Warwick Nowland that would take their 3^rd win of 2003 and significantly, their first-ever one/two for the No.1 and 2 bikes.

And as Nowland crossed the line at Albacete after 12 hours of racing through the night, it seemed that Zongshen could rise to any challenge for their supremacy – other World Endurance teams, local hotshots, Superbikes, the best Supersport team in the world, they have all failed against currently the best Endurance team in the World, Chinas Zongshen.