Photo: FIM
The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) came through in the clutch at this weekend’s World Endurance event at Le Mans, taking the final race of the season.
Going into the 24 Heures Moto, Suzuki hadn’t won a race in the WERC series this season, despite their status as defending champs. The win at the French track bumped them all the way up to second place in the season’s standings, from fifth.
SERT was undoubtedly helped by the fact SRC Kawasaki crashed out of the race; that team had multiple wins at Le Mans, and would have been a major obstacle to victory. SERT was never headed after the Kawi crash.
Yamaha GMT 94 managed to finish second in the race, and used those points to clinch the championship. The Yamaha-mounted Monster Energy YART team finished third.
Qatar Endurance Racing, riding a Superstock Kawasaki, managed a surprising fourth, and Tyco Suzuki (with Guy Martin as one of the riders) finished fifth.
Along with the usual hassle of pit stops and fuel-ups, riders at this year’s Le Mans also had to contend with intermittent rain.
After the event, the FIM announced a provisional calendar for the 2015 season, seen below. For now, they have five events, but they are hoping to add a sixth. They also announced a new class, the SuperTwins category, allowing twin-cylinder machines with flexible regulations, to encourage more participation.
FIM Endurance World Championship – 2015 Provisional calendar
April 18-19 – 24 Heures Moto at Le Mans
June 6-7 – 12 Hours of Magny-Cours
July 26 – Suzuka 8 Hours
August 22 – 8 Hours of Oschersleben
September 19-20 Bol d’Or (24 H) at Le Castellet
Sixth event to be confirmed – It could be in May or October at the Portugal Estoril track, or July 4-5 at the Belgian Zolder track, or in May at the Slovakia Ring.
[…] When the endurance series ended last year, organizers had five races on the 2015 schedule and had hoped for a sixth. That’s all changed now; the June 6-7 visit to Magny-Cours is off the schedule, and there won’t be any races in Belgium, Portugal or Slovakia, as organizers had hoped for. […]