YAMAHA GMT94 CROWNED WORLD CHAMPIONS IN OSCHERSLEBEN
15 August 2004 - Yamaha Racing

Yamaha GMT94 clinched the Endurance World Championship title in style with victory in this weekend’s grueling Oschersleben 24-hour race.

In a successful race for Yamaha, R1 teams took the top three places in the toughest race of the year while many rivals failed to make it to the finish.

The experienced French-based team and its riders David Checa, William Costes and Sebastien Gimbert combined to triumph in a thrilling race that, as expected, was a battle between title protagonists Yamaha GMT94 and Suzuki Endurance Race Team. The two teams set a ferocious pace at the front with the lead changing hands every hour until the decisive moment just after midnight, when the Suzuki squad retired with mechanical problems. GMT94 were then able to reduce their pace from a relentless series of 1’32s lap times to take a trouble free victory. With double the usual points on offer at this, the only 24-hour race on the schedule, GMT94 extend their lead to an unassailable 58 points over closest rivals Yamaha Austria Racing Team with one round remaining.

The race was dominated by Yamaha’s YZF-R1, which has now won this race for the past three seasons. Yamaha Austria Racing Team took second place, 18 laps behind GMT94, with Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 overcoming a crash in the early stages of the race to win the Superproduction class and make it a clean sweep of Yamahas on the podium with third overall. In the championship Yamaha Austria move from fourth to second, with Moto 38 just behind in third.

Yamaha Phase One Endurance had a tough weekend in Oschersleben. The outgoing champions had a nightmarish start to the race when Dean Ellison was forced to push his R1 almost the entire length of the 3.67km circuit after suffering a flat battery just three laps into the race. The ultra fit British rider got the bike back to the pits and despite losing 50 minutes the team was able to rejoin. After ending the first hour 34 laps adrift and in last position, they were able to run at the same pace as the leaders and climbed up the leader board. However a crash for Walter Tortoroglio signaled the end at the six hour mark. Despite the bike being able to continue, the rider suffered concussion and with just two riders available to complete the 18 hours of the race the team elected not to continue.

The final round of the FIM Endurance World Championship takes place at the Vallelunga circuit near Rome in Italy on October 3.

David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) – first
“It’s been a tough race with many teams failing to finish – the stop-start character means that it this track is hard on engines. When Suzuki retired we were able to take things a little easier. We reduced the rev limit to 12,000rpm and removed the quickshifter to reduce the stress on the engine. We had no problems with the bike but it is better to be safe. We also had a bit of luck, you need that in a 24-hour race. It was fortunate that when the Suzuki went out we were making one of our scheduled pit stops. Many bikes went down on the oil from their engine, if we had been on the track at that time then we might have been involved too – you can never really control what happens in endurance racing. It is difficult for me to explain how I am feeling now because we did not expect to win the championship here this weekend. Of course we thought that we could fight for the race win but we did not expect the championship to be decided.”

William Costes (Yamaha GMT94) – first
“I have raced endurance for many years and to finally win the title feels fantastic. I feel very happy for Christophe Guyot who has also been working towards this goal for many years and of course the team, which has worked so hard to put us in this position. I also want to thank Giorgio Barbier and the staff at Pirelli and all the people from Yamaha Motor France and Yamaha Europe. Without their support it would have been impossible to win this title.”

Christophe Guyot (Team Manager, Yamaha GMT94) – first
“We have achieved the goal we set ourselves at the start of the season. With this team, the riders and the bike we have always felt that it was possible to win the championship. It is a shame that Suzuki did not finish, but we had a good race and we can be very happy.”

Horst Saiger (Yamaha Austria Racing Team) – second
“We are very happy. We had an ok start but it was difficult during the night with some heavy traffic. We also had a problem with the quickshifter which made changing gear difficult but otherwise I was a good race and a good result and I am happy for the team.”

Gwen Giabbani (Yamaha Endurance Moto 38) – third
“It was a tough race for us. The start was not so bad and we were running third behind GMT and SERT before we had some problems with a crash and then the throttle cable which put us way down the order. We were able to fight back to third but it was impossible to catch Yamaha Austria, which is disappointing as they are now ahead of us in the points.”

Dean Ellison (Yamaha Phase One Endurance) – DNF
“I think this result sums up our season. After pushing the bike round early on we pushed really hard to make up ground so to get nothing is really disappointing. I’ve no problem with Walter’s crash and was willing to continue as a two-rider team. But as we were so far down it was decided to stop instead.”

Oschersleben 24-hour result:
1: Yamaha GMT94 (David Checa, William Costes, Sebastien Gimbert) 883 laps
2: Yamaha Austria (Thomas Hinterreiter, Igor Jerman, Horst Saiger) 865 laps
3: Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 (Stéphane Duterne, Gwen Giabbani, Sebastien Scarnato) 851 laps

Championship standings (after five of six rounds):
1 Yamaha GMT 94 149 points
2 Yamaha Austria Racing Team 91
3 Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 88

www.yamaha-racing.com

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