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Bol d'Or 24hr 14th/15th September 2002
AND
WHO WAS IT THAT HAD KEVIN SCHWANTZ COME TO VISIT? TWICE? (me)
AND
WHO WAS IT THAT FORGOT TO BRING HIS DAMNED CAMERA?
As had been expected, the top bikes took the best grid places
with SERT No.2 Sebastien Gimbert/Nicholas Daussage/Jean-Michel Bayle taking pole
followed by the GMT94 team of Giovanni Bussei/Sebastien Scarnato/William Costes
in second, the other SERT bike No.1 with Christian Lavielle/Brian
Morrison/Philippe Dobe in third, two riders dipping below the 1min 40sec
barrier, William Costes on 39.932 and Sebastien Gimbert with a record-breaking
1:39.532, beating his best ever time set in 2000 on the Honda VTR and smashing
the best pole time set by Brian Morrison in 2001 of 1:40.588.
At the start, the GMT94 rider, Sebastien Scarnato got of the
line fastest, closely followed by the No.15 Yamaha R1 of Jean-Marc Delatang and
the two factory SERT Suzukis – and although the Yamaha got in front at the
Lycee corner and led after the first lap, by the end of the straight it was GMT
again and the Yamaha was overtaken by the two SERT bikes.
On Lap6 the No.83 Honda fell at the Lycee corner (last corner
before the straight and VERY narrow) spreading gravel across the track, which
brought out the pace car – unfortunate for GMT94, ending up behind the second
pace car again and losing the equivalent of half a lap…meaning that the No2
Castrol Suzuki was leading followed by Warwick Nowland on the No.3 QB Phase One
bike.
Behind them was a heated battle between the No15 Motacc
Yamaha R1, the No17 FreeBike Yamaha R7 (one of the only two full Superbikes in
the race, the other being the No.35 Kawasaki ZX7RR), the No.1 SERT Suzuki, No.72
Le Mans Sud (the SERT junior team), No.91 Dap Motomax, and No.22 Police
Nationale Kawasaki ZX9R.
Further back, Bertrand Sebileau (Fast Sebil) was making good
progress up the field on the No.11 Kawasaki-Art ZX9R after a terrible start.
Just as the first refuelling stops began, the two
semi-official Yamahas ran into problems with Jean-Marc Delatang falling at the
Chateau d’Eau, restarting after repairs in 45th place and the No17
FreeBike R7 starting to overheat. There was also a fall for the other Superbike
at the Bol, the No35 Motoshop ZX7RR at the 180 corner, rider Thierry Mulot
uninjured and bike relatively unscathed…but it dropped them right down the
order.
When the first round of pit stops had unwound, the SERT
Suzukis Nos 2 and 1 were firmly in the lead over GMT94, with No3 QB Phase One,
No72 LMS and Oschersleben winners No38 LMJ Yamaha trailing them.
By hour 2, the Freebike No17 was still suffering overheating
problems and the No44 Ducateam’s Suzuki had to pit to change the rear shock
– but the major action was when TT veteran Ian Lougher fell off the No3 QB
Phase One bike on oil with both the No77 Stop-and-Go Suzuki and the female team
Octopus No89 Yamaha going down as well, which brought the pace cars out
again…and once again poor old GMT94 got stuck behind the second pace car…so
another half-lap lost for them.
By 17:25 the No3 QB Phase One bike was back out - but without
even completing one lap, Warwick Nowland was caught out under braking when
somebody’s lost knee-slider got stuck in the small gap between the front tyre
and the radiator at one of the fastest braking points on the track, pitching
Warwick over the bars in what he described as “the worst crash of my life”.
Warwick wasn’t seriously hurt; though he was very shaken - there was concern
over his sternum, wrist and shoulder but x-rays revealed no breaks.
The No3 QB Phase One team were out of the race for a second
round in succession.
Two hours before darkness fell, the front-runners has settled
down with the Suzuki No2 of Bayle/Daussage/Gimbert ahead of No1 Lavieille/Morrison/Dobe,
the No94 Scarnato/Costes/Bussei and the No72 Jond/Da Costa/Dietrich – but
behind them the ART Kawasaki No11 with Bertrand Sebileau was suddenly overtaken
by a bunch of backmarkers – he pitted for fuel and the team changed the gear
lever.
At 18:30 the pace car was out again – no crash, but a dog
was loose on the track!
Come 19:00, Steven Casaer dropped the No101 MV Agusta at 180
corner – he was on the outside of the No8 Bollinger bike which suddenly had to
lift to avoid a fumbling backmarker, which caught out the MV’s Belgian rider,
who fractured his right collarbone in the crash. Strangely, although he got the
bike back to the pits and it wasn’t too badly damaged, the team which finished
7th at the 24hrs in Liege decided to withdraw from the race –
though doing the rest of the race with only two riders was perfectly possible!
Just as night fell at 20:00, the Police Nationale team No22
had to pit with a broken steering damper, rejoining the race in 25th
position, losing a lot of time. Almost at the same time, the Motoshop Kawasaki
No35, with Philippe Thomas riding, fell at the tricky Grand Courbe, losing 20
minutes with the crash and subsequent pit stop. Shortly after, at 20:10 it was
announced that Sebastien Charpentier had been involved in a serious accident at
the fast Nurbergring S. A stunned Charpentier was in no fit state to get the
Daffix Honda back to the pits and they were out.
22:50 and Ludovic Holon on the No15 Motacc Yamaha in 7th
place broke down with electrical problems at the Adelaide hairpin. A duff
electrical contact was discovered back at the pits and the No15 was back on
track, though five places down…7th was inherited by the Freebike
Yamaha R7 which had it’s own problems with overheating, smoking it’s way
into the pits. Excellent French mineral water was poured into the radiator and
they were back out, only losing one place to the No91 Dap Motomax machine, which
meant that the highest Yamaha at this time was the Oschersleben winner, the No38
LMJ Yamaha with Cuzin/Hacquin/Morillon.
Just after midnight, the No11 Art Kawasaki was in the pits
for a long time, changing the front brakes and a broken rear shock – and at
01:30 the Junior LMS No72 spent too much time pitting with a rear axle that just
wouldn’t re-seat itself…the problem allowed the No38 to get up to 4th….then
at 02:45 the No11 Art Kawasaki was seen pushing back to the pits and the team
feared the worst – although they discovered that most embarrassing of problems
– they’d run out of fuel!
Small problems surfaced during the early hours – the No38
had to change a rear brake master cylinder, the No22 Police Nationale bike
pulled in with a leaking tank and later suffered refuelling problems, a spray of
excess fuel spewing over everyone in the pits, the No11 Art Kawasaki had front
brake pad problems, the French firemen on the No18 Suzuki had to change their
end-can and No33 Chalon Yamaha got a new clutch.
At 06:20, Christian Hacquin crashed the No38 LMJ Yamaha at
the Adelaide hairpin and brought the bike back to fix a damaged radiator and
bodywork and fell from 4th to 8th
Overall, a pretty quiet night-time
J
08;00 and Philippe Dobe on the No1 SERT Suzuki fell at the
Chateau d’Eau corner after being rammed by the No40 Ara Yamaha – a quick
visit to the pits and they were back out…but they’d lost second place to the
GMT94 bike, and from 09:00 onwards, a fascinating battle developed for 2nd
place between both bikes – William Costes on the GMT machine closed the gap
after the previous rider was passed and both Dobe and Costes then duelled
constantly, with Costes finally getting back past just before both bikes pitted
at the same time. Although the GMT bike was first out of the pits, “Mr
Endurance” Brian Morrison was now on the No1 machine passed to retake 2nd
and slowly – but very surely – opened up the gap again with a series
of fast 1:42 laps
And – basically – that’s where the race stayed until
the end. It was always possible that GMT could catch the two leading Castrol
SERT Suzukis…well, at least the second placed one…but, at this level, it
needed a rare mistake from someone to change the positions and SERT have made no
mistakes this year. Great results from Kawasaki, with Fast Sebil and the team on
the No11 machine and the Bollinger team also getting a top ten finish.
SPECIAL MENTION:
No59 Alf’s/Motomax – the Woking
Kawasaki dealer Alf’s with the only all-British team and riders Andi
Notman (Mr. Superfast), “Ronnie” Smith and Ian “Gus” Scott just that close
to a top ten finish, as was James Hutchins on the No47 Bridgestone Bikers team (
and sometimes showing the “old guys” in Alf’s the way to go)…
…and a BIG cheer for the team of Polish champions, rising
from the sad ashes of Bikeshire to carve their own reputation on virtually no
budget AT ALL – still finishing in 21st place on the No70 Pole
Position GSXR1000
…and the female team Octopus, with totally shot 2nd,
3rd and 4th gears, parking up to get out for the last lap
to score a finish – last – but they were still there at the end
J
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