SERT Take Endurance Title
Suzuki Endurance Racing Team has won the 2015 Endurance World Championship after a drama-packed Bol d’Or 24 Hour Race at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France.
SERT riders Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Etienne Masson brought the team’s GSX-R1000 home in third position behind race winners SRC Kawasaki and 2014 world champions GMT94 Yamaha, completing a total of 677 laps of the 5.8 km Le Castellet circuit.
Racing in commemorative blue and white 30th Anniversary GSX-R colours, and in celebration of 35 years of the French team, managed by Dominique Meliand from its Le Man’s-based headquarters, SERT has now claimed an impressive total of 14 Endurance World Championship titles.
The 74,000 Bol d-Or fans witnessed exciting racing; action-packed from lap one until lap 684. SERT’s main series rivals, GMT94 Yamaha, crashed and were forced to push back to the pits for repairs; losing four laps in the process but battling back to finish second.
Going into the night after the Marseille Mistral wind had proved an issue for the teams – particularly on the flat-out 320kph straight – SERT led from SRC Kawasaki, Honda Racing, Monster YART (Yamaha), BMW Motorrad and GMT94 Yamaha; who had climbed back from 54th position after its early incident.
But then things went wrong for SERT; just after collecting 10 bonus championship points for leading at the eight-hour mark, the SERT GSX-R1000 suffered a rear wheel axle problem at 2am – which led to two unscheduled pit-stops that cost the team precious time. However, SERT rejoined the race and clicked-off consistent lap-times through the night into Sunday morning to climb-back into an eventual third position; and the top-step of the Endurance World Championship once again, to celebrate 30 years of the GSX-R Superbike and also 35 years of Dominique Meliand’s Suzuki Endurance Racing Team.
Said Meliand: “They say the younger you are, the more hunger you have for victory, but I can assure you it’s exactly the same at my age! This 14th World Championship title tastes just as good as our first one. And for anyone who dismissed the GSX-R1000, this title proves it is still a winning machine! I’m very, very, happy. It has been a very good year for us; and to finish on the podium today and win the Endurance World Championship is great for Suzuki Motor Corporation and all of our sponsors!”
Alongside Meliand, team kingpin Philippe – who has won nine world titles with SERT (Delhalle has now won seven) – was also overjoyed to help put Suzuki back at the top of this very-demanding world series.
Bol d’Or Results: 1 SRC Kawasaki (Kawasaki) 684 laps, 2 GMT94 Yamaha (Yamaha) 682, 3 SERT – Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle, Etienne Masson (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 677
