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   TEAMS 
SERT - SERTLIVE
YAMAHA AUSTRIA
PHASE ONE
BOLLIGer
TEAM SUZUKI SWEDEN
DIABLO666
No Limits
ENDURANCE MOTO 45
zone rouge
AMADEUS X - One
KAWASAKI FRANCE
ENDURANCE MOTO 38
PRIMO RED FOX RACING
RAFFIN MOTOS
GENOUS TEAM
ABG PERFORMANCE
EWC EUROSPORT BENELUX
MACO MOTO RACING
RMT21 RACING
MICHELIN POWER ONE

OTHER TEAMS
FOLCH ENDURANCE
DUCATEAM
JET ENDURANCE
Police NATIONALE
TEAM MARCHETTI
Bergmann & Söhne
TEAM GMT94
TEAM DELETANG
HONDA DAP 91
TEAM ALFS RACING
Burger King lust MV
TEAM OCTOPUSS
TEAM 3A RACING
TEAM 18 Sapeurs Pompiers
DUCATI ZONE ROUGE 18
RAC41
TEAM POWER BIKE
SUZUKI AUSTRIA
CLASSIC MOTOS RACING
FAGERSJO-EL.SE
SRK SUZUKI
SRU RACING SANGERHAUSEN
XZ TRACK RACING
INNODROM RACING
Les PISTONS FLINGUEURS
TEAM METISS


RESULTS    
        2000
LE-MANS
SPA
        2001
LE-MANS
BRANDS HATCH
BRNO
NURBURGRING
SPA
SUZUKA
OSCHERSLEBEN
BOL D'OR & Final Results

        2002
LE MANS
IMOLA     
SILVERSTONE
BRNO
SUZUKA
OSCHERSLEBEN
BOL D'OR
VALLELUNGA
MACAU GP

     2007
LE MANS
ALBACETE
BARCELONA
SUZUKA
OSCHERSLEBEN
BOLDOR
DOHA
MACAU GP

     2008
WEC ENTRY LIST
DAYTONA 300
DAYTONA 200
LE MANS
ALBACETE
SUZUKA
OSCHERSLEBEN
BOLDOR
DOHA
MACAU GP

     2009
WEC ENTRY LIST
LE MANS
OSCHERSLEBEN
ALBACETE
SUZUKA
BOLDOR
DOHA
MACAU GP

OSCHERSLEBEN 2005 - Germany 13th - 14th August

Although the Castrol Suzuki qualified in pole position, this time it wasn't Vincent Philippe who posted the fastest time - he was edged out by team-mate and World Supersport rider Matthieu Lagrive who set a time half a second faster than the rest of the field. Yamaha Austria qualified in second with a difficult decision for team manager Mandy Kainz, who had to choose between Horst Saiger and Thomas Hinterreiter as third man for the team. Behind them the Phase One team of Warwick Nowland, Damian Cudlin and Andi Notman were just ahead of the stolid Bolliger Kawasaki team, with the Swedish Fagersjo-El Suzuki team of Paul Young, Irishman Adrian Coates and Sweden's Christer Miinin in 5th.

With Keiichi Kitagawa crashing in the warm-up session, there was quite a rush to transfer parts to the second bike in the Castrol Suzuki pits and the race started with rider Vincent Philippe being a bit circumspect and checking that everything was running well before he started to make his charge.
As it was, the Swiss Bolliger team got the drop on everybody with Yamaha Austria and Phase One following. Gwen Giabbani got past the Bolliger Kawasaki within a lap but Philippe was on a charge and took the lead at the start of lap 5 - then disaster.

We saw the No.55 MSC Adenau Aprilia Tuono smoking into and out of corners with the rider obviously unaware that he was dropping oil all over the track. First to go down was one of the three BMW's in the race, the No.22 Bike Performance K1200R, which broke a clip-on - but then the first two hit the same corner and Philippe went down hard, breaking a bone in his hand. Giabbani on the Yamaha Austria R1 was just behind him and had to take avoiding action, hit the grass and also went down. Warwick Nowland on the Phase One Yamaha went past and realized he was in the lead - but wasn't expecting both of the fallen bikes to get up and carry on racing and when the pace cars came while the track was being cleaned, Yamaha Austria were back up to 9th, the Castrol Suzuki in 15th.

Others to go down on the oil included the No.45 JLC Ulteamatum JBB (a Suzuki-engined special with a radical new hub-centre front end) and the No.21 RMT Kawasaki - unfortunate, as they were the last away at the start.

40 minutes and 15 laps later and they were back racing - though both Vincent Philippe and Gwen Giabbani stayed out on track and pitted only at their scheduled times. It looked as if Philippe wasn't able to carry on racing because of his broken hand and Castol Suzuki were down to 2 riders...but Philippe had managed to get the bike up to 9th before his scheduled stop...tremendous stuff with a broken hand!

5 laps after the restart and Phase One were leading, Yamaha Austria 2nd, Bolliger No.8 Kawasaki 3rd and Fagersjo-El No.12 4th...and the Castrol Suzuki was 26th after their first pit-stop.

But Matthieu Lagrive was now on the No.2 Castrol Suzuki.

After all the teams pit-stops had unfolded, the furious charge by Lagrive had put the Castrol Suzuki in the lead. Lap 58 and it was the No.2, six seconds in front of Yamaha Austria's No.7, then Phase One No.3, Bolliger No.8 and the Fagersjo-El No.12. Although, due to staggered pit-stops, all of the top 5 had a go at leading - but, overall, it was the Castrol Suzuki which was lapping the fastest and every time it was in the lead, it was by a larger margin.

Two and three-quarter hours into the race, the No.20 Projecteam Honda permanent team were in the pits with problems...and just down a bit in another pit, one of the two OBI-Bike Promotion MZ1000s's (there were FIVE entered at Oschersleben!) was in it's box with the pilot unable to find a gear. New cassette gearboxes in bubble-wrap were lying around and mechanics from the Zschopau factory were on hand to help out.

3 and a half hours into the race and the Castrol Suzuki was leading by nearly one full lap...but we had lost the Fagersjo-El Suzui No.12. Australian Paul Young was riding the bike when it went onto 3 cylinders. Something was terminally wrong with the engine and the Swedish team were out - without Irishman Adrian Coates even getting race.

Adrian did, however, have a go during night practice before the race - and, never having raced at night, had the fright of his life when he went by a floodlight on a corner and was passed by his own shadow...

The BMW K1200R had another crash and was out of the race - apparently the brakes had become terribly unpredictable...somebody else who didn't get a ride was UK bike journalist Steve Westlake who had taken Trevor Franklins place on the BMW.

Before 9pm, the Bolliger Kawasaki was in the pits replacing it's exhaust, as the transfer pipe had broken...they weren't off-track for long and rejoined in 12th place, the other BMWK1200, the Schubert Motors No.40 S-type was in the pits getting a new clutch and rear wheel gear (the bike looked like a bus but was out-braking many into corners and out-dragging many more out of them - awesome!).

Fifteen minutes after 10 at night and the pace cars were out again. The Phase One Juniors, the Shell Academy No.6 had crashed just coming out of the Hotel corner and the bike was in the middle of the track. It was eventually recovered and pushed back to the pits. In all, Shell Academy had 3 crashes, 2 from Calvin Hogan and one from Ben Wylie, losing at total of around half an hour.

(Some bike had killed a rabbit at the chicane during the night. For the rest of the race, riders were using it's ears as an apex...)

Suzuki Castrol were in first place are lapping in 1:33s, still pulling away. Yamaha Austria and Yamaha Phase One (second and third) were doing 1:34s, and Diablo and Bolliger (third and fourth) 1:36s. Lagrive and Kitagawa continue to do back to back sessions and both Yamaha Austria and Phase One were waiting for the early hours of the morning when (they assumed) both riders would be too tired to give their best and they could close up.

Things just didn't work out for Phase One No.3, though. Just after midnight they were out of the race with a suspected failed crankshaft. Andi Notman was riding when the bike broke: "The engine let go on the start finish straight. There was no real warning...it tried to seize a little bit so I grabbed the clutch, but it had gone really grumbly from the bottom end. I brought it in at just over tick-over to get back, but it's dead, I'm afraid."

So, now Suzuki Castrol and Yamaha Austria were fighting for first place, the Suzuki is two laps clear of the Yamaha.  Bolliger, in third place, were six laps behind Yamaha Austria and one ahead of Steve Mizera, Russell Baker and James Hutchins on the Diablo666 Kawasaki

By six on Sunday morning there was still no sign of the Castrol Suzuki pairing getting weaker and the No.2 Suzuki had now done 554 laps and was now 4 laps in front of the Yamaha Austria No.7. Paolo Tessari's Yamaha X-One No.4 team had packed it in but all five of the MZ1000S's, the Triumph and the BMW K1200S were still going...the German Evers-ZAB No.54 Triumph Daytona 955i pit crew were have a very 'British' series of stops, with one of the mechanics dressed as a waiter and offering tea to the incoming riders...

7am...8 hours to go and the challenge from the Yamaha Austria No.7 was over. Within a few moments of going out on his relay, Thomas Hinterreiter had crashed and the bike couldn't be shifted. The depression in the big red pit-box was deep...the Yamaha Austria team had such high hopes for this season and were a match for any other in the Championship (in fact, my tip to take the series this year. It's the first time in 3 years that I won't have chosen the winner before the Championship began).

The Austrian teams crash meant that, for the first time, the Castrol Suzuki team could take a breather - and Vincent Philippe could take over while Kitagawa and Lagrive took some much needed rest...and with the now second-placed Bolliger Kawasaki having to pit to replace a weeping front fork (they rejoined 3 laps ahead of third-placed Diablo666), they were leading by 19 laps.

Then, it started raining. lightly at first, then heavier...and heavier...and heavier. Throughout it all, the female fan club of Keiichi Kitagawa were jumping, dancing, blowing air-horns and shouting every time the Japanese rider went past. They would keep it up for the full 24 hours...by now, the totally standard Aprilia Motociclismo Test Team No.9 were in 7th, and the No.111 Obi Bike Promotion MZ in 9th, both bikes able to use their power characteristics to the full in the wet, with Suzuki No Limits No.44 in 4th and the Bridgestone Bikers No.5 Suzuki 5th.

Even to the end, the Castrol Suzuki was pulling away from the rest...and at the end of the full 24 hours, Castrol Suzuki were the new 2005 World Endurance Champions, uncatchable with the final race at Vallelunga still to come.

And Keiichi Kitagawa becomes the first Japanese World Endurance Champion ever.

FULL RESULTS in PDF FORMAT HERE

POINTS AFTER 4 ROUNDS

PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST