Monday 14 April 2014

Paul Ricard on the movies

See this link:
http://www.motorlive.tv/345/events-sunday-ride-classic-2014

Sunday 6 April 2014

2nd at Paul Ricard










Peter Linden and Cormac Conroy scored a superb 2nd position to lay the foundation stones for retaining the FIM ECS Endurance Championship. After a race long battle, the race was won by  the new pairing of Richard Hubin and  Gregory Fastre on a 'Team Force' GSX 1100 Suzuki, with only 12 seconds separated the teams at the completion of this 4 hours race.
In 3rd place, was Alf's Motorcycle's Patrick Banfield, Mick Godfrey and new recruit Bob Collins, some 3 minutes in arrears on their P&M Kawasaki












The race was held in dry warm conditions at temperatures around 25 degrees C.

Spectator numbers exceeded 10.000, a number which should guarantee the long term future of this event.

As well as spectator numbers being above expectations, the grid was also full, with 44 starters and the overall standard higher than ever. Gregory Fastre, as 2013 FIM world endurance super stock champion being evidence of that!












The Team Force machine had a relatively trouble free run, save for a fuel calculation error which forced a premature second stop. Sweatshop Phase One ran a five stop race; Linden-Conroy-Linden-Conroy-Linden-Linden in an effort to keep the pressure on the Belgians right to the end , but it was to no avail. Linden closed from a 17 second deficit at stop 5, to 12 seconds at the flag, but there was always a feeling that Team Force had just that little bit in reserve. Considering Peter's duff wrist, it was a pretty good effort.










Cormac Conroy put in an extremely businesslike performance all weekend, qualifying in third position in the rider 2 group with a time of 2 mins.31.35 secs and matching that in the race.

Pole was set by Gregory Fastre with a 2 mins 25.599 secs lap with Linden 2nd with a 2 mins 26.03 sec performance. Mick Godfrey was third with 2 mins 28.6 secs, with Hubin and Langlois also in the 28s.










Steve Boam and Steve Clark finished 16th after a trouble free run and John Neate finished 32nd after mechanical trouble.






The Bolliger Team failed to recover from a warm up crash and they abandoned after 29 laps.

Fastest race lap was scored by Gregory Fastre at 2 min. 25.5 secs.



















Final Results

1  Team Force,                 Hubin/Fastre,                      Suzuki                       93 laps
2  Sweatshop Phase One, Linden/Conroy,       P&M Kawasaki  93 laps - 12.68 secs
3 Alfs Kawasaki,       Banfield/Collins/Godfrey, P&M Kawasaki 93 laps - 184.8 secs
4 Team Taurus,                Cantalupo/Sardi,                 Suzuki                      92 laps
5 Hampe Racing Team,    Haquin/De Dieuleveult      Kawasaki                92 laps
6 Roadrunner                   Brand/Van de Mark             Bakker Suzuki         90 laps
7 ACR1 Wobker             Wobker/Matthies/Paulsen Rau Kawasaki         90 laps
8 Scuderia Toscan           Belluci/Qiueti/Zaccare       Segoni Special        89 laps
9 Les Melting Potes         Langlois/Frattini                 Kawasaki                 88 laps
10  Braghi Corse             Rossi/Damiani                       Ducati                       87 laps