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2011
MONZA

VALLELUNGA 2004 - Italy 3rd October

So, the final round of the World Endurance season...and Vallelunga. Not strictly speaking an "endurance" event, more of a sprint, being as it was only a 200 mile event.

The GMT94 team of Sebastien Gimbert, David Checa and William Costes (pronounced "Cost") had already secured the Championship crown - therefore Gimbert was off to cause a ruckus in the final round of World Superbikes at Magny Cours on a Yamaha Italia R1 - to such good effect that he took first place in both qualifying sessions, 4th in Superpole and 4th in both races. Wake up, WSB...WEC will be kicking your ass next year!

Gimbert had the added advantage of already using Pirelli tyres with the GMT94 team all season, therefore his class wouldn't be diluted by the unfamiliarity of said hoops.

So...Castrol Suzuki still had that one rider who was able to get the best out of the admittedly superior Dunlops (in the conditions that prevailed at Vallelungs - hot - Pirellis come into their own at somewhat lower temperatures), that being the amazing Vincent Philippe, who ended qualifying just under seven tenths of a second faster than the next best team...in fact, the only rider to dip under the 1:18 mark at the 3.2 kilometer track. It's interesting to note also that Vallelunga has also just started a major building project - they're adding a new section to add another 1 kilometer to the overall length.

Second in qualifying was the LMJ Moto38 team - rider Gwen Giabbani at last getting some sort of a result which wasn't his perennial 3rd, though he had some anxious moments when William Costes from the GMT94 team swapped places with his team manager/third rider for the event (Christophe Guyot) to go out in the final session and try to get a better qualifying time with less riders on the track. This being a sprint 200 mile event, many teams would elect to only field two riders and this would catch out one team in particular. Costes didn't quite manage to better Giabbani's time though, and GMT94 ended up 3rd in qualifying, just ahead of the resurgent 2003 Champions, Phase One No.3 who were fielding Stephane Mertens and Sebastien Scarnato. Erwin Wilding's WRT Honda Austria Fireblade team were in 5th...but Wilding had decided that he didn't need long-time rider Karl Truchsess for Vallelunga and was riding himself.
Karl was going to make this race the last of his illustrious career but, rumour had it, was also coming down to collect his wages personally...
Fate intervened and Wilding found himself rueing the decision to leave Karl at home. He himself crashed the bike at the infamously fast Curvone corner, shredding the shiny No.5 Fireblade and breaking a few bones in his left hand into the bargain. Gwen Giabbani was right behind him at the time and was just taking avoiding action when he also went down...he was ok but the Moto38 Yamaha was also destroyed and parked out the back of the pits next to the remains of the Honda - well, the only bits that remained, anyway...the frame and swing-arm...

To come off at Curvone means that you are a member of the Curvone Club...I think it's a faster corner than Craners at Donington...and Gwen Giabbani is the honorary Predidente, due to his previous spectacular crash at the 2002 event, with another member being Marcel Kellenberger after the Dali-esque shape he created of the ZX9R in 2003...a few days before it was due to be sold...

So...no spare rider for the Honda Austria team...but Russell Benney, team manager of Phase One had decided that his two main riders for the event would be Mertens and Scarnato - which left third man Dean Ellison free to race the Honda...without any practice on the bike at all.

6th and 7th in qualifying were the two Yamaha Austria entries of the No.7, ridden by British Superbike riders Dean Thomas and Gary Mason, alongside top development rider Mike Edwards (with Mike taking the fastest qualifying time for the team - one in the eye for BSB, then) and the No.77 ridden by Horst Saiger and Thomas Hinterreiter. Gary Mason had brought his Dad along but was struggling with a set up far removed from his Virgin Mobile BSB Yamaha.

This being Italy, Dario Marchetti had entered his Ducati DRE No.9 with Marc Garcia and Gianmaria Liverani - alongside (as usual) the most glamorous umbrella girls in the paddock - and they had qualified 8th (the team, not the girls...I would have put them first...). Top Kawasaki was once again the No.8 Swiss Bolliger team with Marcel Kellenberger and David Morillon - with a big surprise rounding out the top ten, the Aprilia RSV1000R of the Scuderia Motociclismo team...a team consisting of ALL motorcycle journalists.

Other teams of note...the Benelli factory had entered TWO Tornado triples for this event, Andrea Perselli and Paolo Tessari qualifying 12th on the No.2 machine, with Maurizio Bargiacci and Riccardo Ricci qualifying 17th.

Yamaha Austria were running two bikes - so were Benelli, Bridgestone Bikers, Team Millenium and the Swedish Fagersjo-el team.

Team Hottrax, the 2003 British KRC Endurance Championship winners (they came 4th this year) were on the grid with riders Dave Mabbutt, Dave Smith and Jonathan Power - but suffered the indignity of two crashes. They were first taken out by an unidentified Suzuki on the Thursday, then Jonathan Power lost the front end in first qualifying, which meant a rebuild lasting all day without a chance to set a better qualifying time. They were rapidly running out of spare parts and were saving their last few bits for the race - their Kawasaki ZX10R looked a mess but still ran sweetly. Their time put them in next to last on the grid in 34th place, beaten by the all-girl team that had entered - the Millenium Girls, Alessia Polita, Alice Betti and the Samuela De Nardi...a huge change from the all-girl French team, these girls were not only Championship winners at home in Italy but were gorgeous as well - Samuela a spectacular stunning blond, Alice as cute as a button and Alessia a Goth babe.

The paddock was roaring as well...bike-mad Giuseppe Sandroni from Tavullia (Rossi's home town) had brought two of his collection of over 120 superb bikes to the track and they were awesome 350cc and 500cc 4 cylinder racing Benellis (of which he has 12!) from the classic era. He fired both of them up and they could be heard back in his home town...they made your ears bleed...

THE RACE
Right from the start it was obvious that something terminal had to happen to the No.3 Castrol Suzuki to stop it running away with the race. Temperatures were pretty high and the Pirellis don't seem to work as well at high track temperatures. By the end of the first lap, the No.3 was leading by a fair margin and although the Phase One No.1 Yamaha was in second place, it was clear that a battle would develop over 2nd place and not for the lead. GMT94 were in 3rd, Honda Austria 4th, Moto38 5th, then the Ducati DRE No.9, Yamaha Austria No.7, the second Yamaha Austria bike No.77 in 8th followed by the Bridgestone Bikers No.47 and one of the two Benelli Tornados, the No.105 in 10th.

The battle for 2nd place swung to and fro but the entire race had already been decided, bar accidents - of which, thankfully, there were relatively few.

By Lap 5, the Castrol Suzuki had pulled a 2.5 second gap over GMT94, now in second place...and one of the 'ringers' from arguably the best domestic series in the world, British Superbikes - Dean Thomas - was already 12 seconds down, in 8th place.

Lap 11 and now 6.3 seconds separated 1st from the battle for 2nd place. Vincent Philippe on the Castrol Suzuki was putting in consistent laps around the 1:20 mark, with David Checa only able to get to within 0.6 of a second of the Suzuki's lap times. Sebastien Scarnato on the Phase One No.1 Yamaha was third now, being harried all the time by Gwen Giabbani on the Moto38 Yamaha in 4th. Then it was Marc Garcia on the No.9 DucatiDRE (a 998, would you believe) and Freddy Moreira on the Honda Austria No.5. Both Yamaha Austria R1's had managed to get past the Bolliger No.8 Kawaski which was now holding 9th.

Lap 15 and the No.2 Benelli Tornado was in the pits...another DNF, this time gravel in the gearbox after he ran off track trying to lap a back-marker..
Half an hour into the race and Gwen Giabbani on the Supersport-spec Yamaha had taken 2nd place from the superbike engined GMT94 Yamaha - but they both came into the pits at the same time for their first of two compulsory pit-stops and GMT94 got out first by a whisker...but that was all it took.

While the Castrol Suzuki sailed majestically into the distance (by the end of the race, they had lapped everybody up to 3rd place), Moto38 and GMT94 fought on after dropping the Scarnato/Mertens pairing on the Phase One No.1. Por old Gary Mason had a bit of a moment trying to brake from high speed into the first corner - he didn'y know that you had to check your brakes after coming into the pits, because in Endurance racing, they change the front wheel...his pads had been pushed back in the calipers. He ran off the track but lost time.

The other Yamaha Austria machine, the No.77 was going well...until the chain broke with 20 laps to go and Horst Saiger parked it, realizing that it was going to be impossible to get back to the pits for a repair and rejoin the race with a chance of some points.

That's basically how it finished...Moto38 would lose a few seconds to the new World Champions, GMT94...something I KNOW rider Gwen Giabbani hated (he's fed up with being third all the time) and the Castrol Suzuki would be forever out of reach. All this was down to tyres...Castrol Suzuki had the best Dunlop tyres available...Pirelli just haven't been able to put the same resources and number of years of development in to close that half-second a lap advantage.

With those Dunlops, it's getting like a "Rocky" movie...the Vallelunga was top class entertainment and worth every penny to go to...but we all knew how it was going to end...Rocky won.