Suzuki Endurance Racing Team Wins the Oschersleben 24 Hours
The long-awaited duel at the Oschersleben 24 Hours between Suzuki Endurance Racing Team and Team Kawasaki France didn’t last longer than four hours.
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 The long-awaited duel at the Oschersleben 24 Hours between Suzuki Endurance Racing Team and Team Kawasaki France didn’t last longer than four hours. After a neck and neck start to the race between the two official machines, the tension eventually took its toll with a fall for the Kawasaki just after 19:00. By the finish SERT had confirmed its dominance with the victory, finishing 12 laps ahead of the Kawasaki. The win means that the Suzuki team has further increased its lead in the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship classifications. The Bol d’Or is now on the horizon and promises to be a decisive race in the Championship, before the final round takes place in Qatar in November. In finishing second behind Suzuki, Kawasaki France has earned valuable points. Delayed by the first fall of Gwen Giabbani and then by a second from Julian Mazuecos, the Kawasaki nevertheless did begin to make up the lost time and mount a recovery, before benefiting from the problems of Yamaha Austria Racing Team at the end of the race to take second place on the podium. YART had a two lap lead on Kawasaki France and had looked like they had done enough to clinch second spot, before an engine heating problem caused them to loose several minutes at around 14:00. Their misfortune allowed Kawasaki to gain a place with YART finishing in third, eight laps behind. Yamaha Phase One Endurance was the most unfortunate team during this race in Germany. All was going well until 11:00 this morning. Sitting in third position since the beginning of the race, Phase One was forced into the pits with what looked like a clutch problem. A short while later the English Yamaha was forced to abandon with a broken engine, less than three hours from the finish. “We had a dream race with Warwick Nowland, Stefan Nebel and Pedro Vallacaneras”, said Russell Benney, team manager of Phase One. “We were racing well all weekend but had a horrible result. But we have already put this behind us and our preparations for the Bol d’Or begin tomorrow.” Bolliger Switzerland, who had started the race from the back following the fall of Patric Muff, made a great recovery, finishing in fourth position. The Kawasaki Bolliger finished five laps ahead of the astonishing BMW entered by BMW Motorrad. Thomas Hinterreiter, Rico Penzkoffer and Markus Barth finished fifth on the R1200S which will return to action at the Bol d’Or. The other BMW Motorrad finished ninth, and having been entered into the Open class, did not register any points towards the overall World Championship. The winners in the Superproduction category, Kawasaki Raffin Motos, recorded their best results of the season finishing in sixth place while earning the points for fifth, just ahead of Kawasaki Diablo 666 Bolliger who were slowed by fuel problems, and another Kawasaki of Jadoul Motorsport. Among the other permanent teams who finished in the points, Endurance Moto 38 looked capable of finishing high up, but a fall lost them fifth place and they ultimately came in tenth. RMT 21 Racing made a great start to the race. In seventh position after 22 hours the German Honda also lost time thanks to a fall and finished in eleventh. Endurance Moto 45 recorded their first points of the 2007 Championship thanks to its 14th place, earning points for 12th. Suzuki Superstock lost ground due to a problem with a wheel axel. Maco Moto Racing had also been well-placed on Saturday afternoon but two falls and then clutch problems slowed their progress. Maco Moto ultimately finished in 16th, 13th in the classifications. Finally, a fall and then a fuel pump failure saw RT Racing & Moto Virus finish in 14th in the classifications. The Oschersleben track is very demanding for both riders and machines and there were many retirements. Well-placed at the beginning of the race, Qatar Endurance Racing Team retired in the middle of the night following three falls. Zone Rouge Yamaha Belgique, who had been in firth place over the first few laps, also pulled out after two falls from Olivier Depoorter. In the Amadeus X-One team, Mauro Lucchiari broke his collarbone in a fall and was unable to bring the Yamaha back to the pits. Suzuki Sweden’s machine was too damaged to continue racing following two crashes. After a big fall and a broken selector switch, LTG 57, were relegated to the back of the race and chose to retire. FCC TSR Eurosport Benelux also abandoned after two falls at about 05:00 in the morning. Among the machines entered in the Open category, several were unable to make the full 24 hours of racing. The Triumph Daytona 675 of PS LSL, who had been well-placed at the beginning of the race, abandoned along with the Harley Davidson Racing Bonn. The next race in the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship will take place over 24 hours at the Bol d’Or on the 15th and 16th September at Magny-Cours in France.
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