MICHELIN and YAMAHA FRANCE GMT 94 claim third place at Suzuka

 

The 35th Suzuka 8 Hours saw MICHELIN and its partner team Yamaha France GMT 94 MICHELIN Yamalube  finish  on  the  third  step  of  the  podium  to  put  a  European  team  and  a  French  tyre manufacturer up with the front-runners at this legendary Japanese race. Motorcycle endurance racing permits open competition between tyre firms and this weekend’s visit to Suzuka enabled MICHELIN to reinforce its understanding of the Japanese venue where it was running a new tyre. It also finished on top of Saturday’s ‘Top 10 Trial’ qualifying shootout which saw its rubber establish a new endurance motorcycling  lap record for the venue in association  with Monster  Energy Yamaha  Austria  Racing Team (YART). The race itself saw MICHELIN improve its times with BMW Motorrad France Thevent by more than a second per lap.

 

In front of the 57,000 spectators who braved the heat at Suzuka (air: 34°C / track: 46°C), the local s tars got off away to a strong start at the sort of pace normally associated with sprint racing. The drama-filled early  phase  was  marked  by  a  number  of  falls,  safety  car  interruptions,  retirements  and  position changes.  There  were  even  surprises  in  the  last  10 minutes  when  Spaniard  David  CHECA  (N°94 Yamaha) came out on top of his fight for third place to put himself and fellow GMT 94 rider Kenny FORAY on the final podium. The result will have thrilled their absentee team-mate Matt LAGRIVE.

MICHELIN’s  priorities for the race were performance  and consistency and it had the satisfaction  of seeing the lap times of its three partner teams come down by between 0.5s and 1.5s compared with 2011. For example, BMW Motorrad France Thevent’s fastest race lap in 2011 was a 2m11.2s (posted by Damian CUDLIN), while Erwan NIGON produced a time of 2m9.4s during his first stint at Suzuka today!

The French firm also demonstrated its capacity to innovate thanks to a selection of tyres that were designed specifically for this figure-of-eight track. Its three partner teams benefited from a new rear tyre which took the high temperatures in its stride, while at the same time delivering consistent performance from start to finish.

Said Nicolas GOUBERT (Technical Director of the MICHELIN Group’s Competition Department): “We would like to thank our partner GMT 94 on its excellent performance and sound race strategy. It was a real team effort and its final pit-stop proved decisive. Congratulations, too, to its two riders, David and Kenny, who provided a further illustration of their talent, despite the demanding conditions. We also come away with more valuable championship points which, in addition to our satisfaction with today’s result, was our objective here…”