The YZF-R1 earns its wet weather badge after carrying Yamaha Austria Racing to win the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Yamaha Austria Racing Team won round one of the 2009 World Endurance Championship in the Le Mans 24 Hours Endurance, finishing 5 laps ahead of Honda France and 11 laps before the reigning World Champions, Suzuki Endurance Racing Team.
In one of the most intense Le Mans Endurance races for some time, YART riders Steve Martin, Igor Jerman and Gwen Giabbani rode their new MotoGP derived
Yamaha R1 through heavy rain for nearly 20 hours to take the checkered flag. The new machine proved the perfect tool to handle the difficult conditions with its unique crossplane crankshaft design giving the riders essentially smoother torque and more useable power to get through and out of the slippery corners of the Le Mans circuit.
In a noticeably disappointed third was the reigning championship Suzuki Endurance Racing Team.
Most of the 46 competing teams suffered crashes and incidents due to the adverse weather. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team riders Vincent Philippe, Barry Veneman and Guillaume Dietrich held a 16-second lead briefly just past the two-hour mark but lost it when heavy rain began to fall. They then circulated in second place for the next 20 hours after a small crash, but remounted to keep their podium hopes alive. In the end they were able to complete 716 laps on their
GSX-R1000 in front of 92,000 fans that were on hand for the 32nd running of the Le Mans 24 Hour.
The Franco-Italian RT Racing Team demonstrated a stronger finish for this year’s Championship with a 4th result. In the qualifying rounds before the final Superpole, it was Yamaha France’s GMT94 team with David Checa, Sébastien Gimbert and Erwan Nigon who qualified first, entering the final Superpole with a 1:37.941, just ahead of Honda France.
The seventeen permanent teams competing in this year are comprised of an assortment of 5 different manufacturers, some of which provide direct support, and yet others like GMT-94 whose rider David Checa is sharing his time by also participating in this year’s World Superbike Championship
The next World Endurance race will be the 8 hours at Oscherleben’s Motorsport Areana, followed by 8 hrs on the Circuito de Albacete, the Suzuka 8hrs, another 24 hours in France at Magny-Cours and ending the in the desert at Doha, Qatar for the season’s final 8 hours.
Gwen Giabbani, Yamaha Austria Racing Team
“Finally after 11 years of not winning! Igor waited 11 years for his second victory, for me it’s my first. There were no issues with the fantastic performance of the bike, and we lost very little time in stops. There were no crashes to be regretted, everything was perfect.”
Steve Martin, Yamaha Austria Racing Team
“It’s absolutely incredible to win here on my second time at the 24HR. The bike performed faultlessly which made the whole race easier. My team-mates both performed unbelievably, we made the right steps at the right times which gave us an advantage. We were then able to put pressure on the other teams and forced them to make mistakes. I want to dedicate this win to my life-long friend and mentor Peter Kerr who passed away this weekend, making this an exceptionally hard weekend’s racing for me. ”
Igor Jerman, Yamaha Austria Racing Team
“I’ve had to wait 11 years to win the Le Mans 24HR Moto. This year the team was very well prepared with the new Yamaha bike and we also changed tyres to Michelins which were great. We need to make some small changes for the next race but our result here was very good.”
Mandy Kainz, Yamaha Austria Racing Team Manager
“Everyone who’s dedicated to Endurance racing wants to win this race once in his life. I can hardly believe that we actually managed to do it. Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani worked together as a proper team and had hardly any problems. Heavy rain, especially at night caused a lot of dramatic scenes. In the crucial phase of the race my boys managed to capitalize on their experience. I have to give them a lot of respect, they weren’t only the fastest out there but managed to ride faultlessly.”
2009 Le Mans 24 Hour Resuts:
1. Yamaha Austria Racing Team - Jerman, Martin, Giabbani - 24:00:47.964, 727 laps
2. Honda France - Plater, Charpentier, Lagrive - 24:02:25.332, 722
3. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team - Philippe, Veneman, Dietrich - 24:02:08.196, 716
4. RT Racing Team (Suzuki) – Devoyon, Chevre, Jond - 24:01:35.980, 709
5 . RAC 41 City Bike (Suzuki) – Junod, Gantner, Houssin - 24:02:40.820, 696
6. Team GSR Kawasaki – Da Costa, Foray, Moreira - 24:02:48.348, 695
7. Bolliger Team (Kawasaki) – Saiger, Muff, Penzkofer - 24:02:02.092, 692
8. No Limits (Suzuki) - Hickman, Belluccie, Minin - 24:02:46.460, 685
9. Amadeus X-One (Yamaha) – Tessari, Gruy, Dos Santos - 24:00:48.060, 678
10. RMT 21 Racing Team (Honda) – Seidel, Zaiser, Etheridge - 24:01:24.316 , 672
