The 45th edition of the 24 Heures Motos ended with the victory for the Sarthoise SERT team this Sunday, April 17. After dominating most of the race, their Suzuki won less than two minutes ahead of the YART Yamaha. The Honda of the FCC TSR finished in third place, at 826 laps against 840 for the SERT.
After two editions behind closed doors, the 62,000 spectators were able to taste the pleasure of invading the circuit at the time of the podium. The suspense was there with the deployment of the safety car, the safety car, from the start of the race, but also a few minutes from the finish. “We were scared, because after the safety car, the tires cooled down so we have to be careful. We freaked out, but it was wonderful“, enthuses Mathieu, a regular in the race from Seine-Saint-Denis.
“It has never gone so fast here”
“They accustom us to victory, so much the better“Laughs a SERT supporter. The race was not easy for the Sarthe team, however.”The pace was super fast, it’s never gone so fast here in endurance“, says the pilot Gregg Black. “It was so tight we couldn’t release the pressure like we did last year.” This victory allows them to take the lead in this endurance world championship. “But you shouldn’t feel overwhelmed, the competition is really there, it’s going to be very tight throughout the championship.“, adds the Frenchman.
– Raphael Cann
Although the YART Yamaha suffered a technical problem when starting, it was unable to catch up with the SERT despite running out of fuel in the first hours. The Honda of FCC TSR, which was in the lead overnight, had to fight to secure its third place after technical problems and a crash of the British Gino Rea. “We are satisfied with this third place. With all the troubles we had, we did pretty well“, comments pilot Josh Hook.”Obviously, we would have liked to win, but the most important thing is to collect points for the championship.“The next round will be played in Belgium for the 24h of Spa on June 4th and 5th.