16
April
2017
|
15:52 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

GMT94 Yamaha and Dunlop win 24 Hours of Le Mans Endurance

  • First and fourth in EWC
  • Superstock 1-2 for Dunlop teams
  • ​Resounding win for the commercially available KR106/ KR108
  • ​11 Dunlop teams in the top 15
  • Tati Team Beaujolais takes Dunlop Independent Trophy win

The Dunlop-shod GMT94 Yamaha team took its third Le Mans 24 Hours victory with a strong performance in the second round of the FIM Endurance World Championship on the Bugatti track this weekend. The team took the lead at the 21 hour mark and overcame a late collision with another bike to win by just over a minute. The win on Dunlop’s commercially available KR106/KR108 tyres marks the second victory for David Checa, and the first for Niccolo Canepa and rookie Mike Di Meglio.

The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT), winner of the opening round, narrowly missed out on a podium finish. The trio of Vincent Philippe, Alex Cudlin and Etienne Masson maintained a strong pace throughout to finish fourth after a trouble-free run.

It was a difficult start to the race for Dunlop partners Honda Endurance Racing who suffered issues at the start, which dropped race starter Freddie Foray down to 59th. A superb job by the Honda team soon saw the Fireblade repaired and back on track and over the course of the 24 hours, Foray, Sebastien Gimbert and Julien Da Costa climbed their way back to a superb 11th at the flag.

The Endurance World Cup for Superstock saw Tati Team Beaujolais (Kawasaki) improve on its second place in the season-opener, to take the win. The team finished two laps ahead of series newcomer Moto AIN CRT (Yamaha), who won last time out. Tati Team Beaujolais consequently also reversed the results of round one of the Dunlop Independent Trophy, to take the cash prize, ahead of Moto AIN CRT.  Completing the podium was the #3 AM Moto Racing Competition team (Kawasaki).

In the overall race, 11 of the top 15 teams were chose to compete on Dunlop tyres.

Sebastien Montet, Technical Director, Dunlop Motorsport

“That was a great race. We have one of our biggest tyre battles in EWC – we won both categories but four tyre manufacturers were on the two podiums. The newly resurfaced track was more aggressive, as expected, so we supplemented our tyre options with our harder commercially available KR106 and KR108 which served us very well. GMT94 was able to double stint and save time in the pits but still had the confidence to push hard. In superstock, Tati Team Beaujolais used the same tyres as GMT94 and were able to complete three relays on the rear tyre and six on the front. The Dunlop team and all our teams did a great job this weekend.”

-ends-

Dunlop EWC Statistics

Titles:  
9/12: Dunlop has helped teams win nine out of the last 12 EWC titles
15/22: In the last 22 years Dunlop EWC runners have been crowned 15 times

Race Wins:   
46/82: Of the 82 races held since 2002 Dunlop teams have stood on the top step of the podium 46 times

For more information on Dunlop Europe, visit www.dunlop.eu or follow us on Twitter @DunlopMoto