Yoshimura SERT Motul claimed a double victory in the FIM Endurance World Championship on Sunday at the final race of the season, clinching the epic EWC title battle with back-to-back victories at the Bol d’Or at the Paul Ricard circuit.
The Suzuki trio of Gregg Black, Dan Linfoot and Étienne Masson made no mistake to hand Yoshimura SERT Motul their second EWC title – their first since 2021 – after 11 titles won while the French team raced under the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team banner.
With the first finish, Suzuki has won the legendary 24-hour Bol d’Or race 20 times, while Black and Masson become four-time winners of the long-standing EWC event.
“Of course when you join a team like Yoshimura SERT Motul you expect results to fight for the championship but winning the championship in the first year is a dream for me“, said Linfoot, the only Yoshimura SERT Motul rider to have finished on the podium in all four EWC races this season.”Winning Le Mans, second at Spa, third at Suzuka and finally winning the Bol d’Or to take the championship was an amazing experience. Working with this amazing team and my amazing teammates, all the staff, it was an amazing year. It was a great moment.“ .
Black, who has been recovering from an injury sustained racing at the Bol d’Or, said: “The wrist injury was a pretty tough moment after winning at Le Mans and getting a podium at Spa. The injury at the Suzuka test was a pretty complicated incident and took me out of the race. But Cocoro, Dan and Albert [Arenas] did really well and got some important points for the championship. It was a complicated two months for me, getting my wrist back to normal and trying to get the mental and physical strength to get back on the bike. A lot of strength goes through the wrist when I ride, and I wasn’t 100 percent sure if I would be able to get back on the bike, but I did all 10 races, tried to keep up the pace and be as fast as I could.“
Gregg Black – “It was a complicated two months for me, getting my wrist back to normal and trying to get the mental and physical strength to get back on the bike. I wasn’t 100 percent sure I would be able to get back on the bike, but I finished all 10 of my races, trying to keep up the pace and be as fast as I could.“
The Yamaha-powered KM 99 took its first EWC podium in just its second year in the championship, joining Randy de Puniet, Jérémy Guarnoni and Florian Marino in second place to finish 2024 as the top independent EWC team.
“It was a really good race for us.,” said former MotoGP rider de Puniet. “We made some mistakes at the beginning of the year but after Suzuka we didn’t make any more mistakes. We had a bit of luck in this race, SERT was so fast, the pace was incredible, BMW too, but they had some problems at the end of the race and that’s why we finished second. For the team it’s a perfect result, for me too, even if one day I want to win an endurance race“ .
The Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC official team started the Bol d’Or decider leading the standings as one of four teams in contention for the championship. Despite finishing third on the Formula EWC podium, the team was unable to defend the EWC title it won in 2023 after two time-consuming unscheduled pitstops.
The result means YART rider Niccolò Canepa, who was partnered by Marvin Fritz and Karel Hanika, will retire without the third world title he craves. But he will still go down in history as one of the greatest EWC riders of all time.
“This wasn’t exactly the race we expected, we were hoping to fight a little more with SERT and make their life a little harder“, Canepa said. “Unfortunately, we had problems in the first stage and we were never fighting for the win in this race. Because of the problems we had in the first stage, we kept having problems throughout the race. But we never expected to be on the podium today, so we have to be happy with this third place because it was a difficult race for us.“ .
Despite being hampered by technical issues, National Motos Honda FMA won the FIM Endurance World Cup for Teams with riders Guillaume Raymond, Sébastien Suchet and Valentin Suchet. That was after Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers CMS Motostore won the Bol d’Or in the Dunlop-powered class in fourth place overall with a line-up of Enzo De La Vega, Baptiste Guittet, Maxim Pellizotti and 2014 EWC champion Mathieu Gines.
The Chromeburner-RAC 41-Honda finished second to take the runner-up spot in the standings as TRT27 AZ Moto took third. Departing champions Team 33 Louit April Moto finished fourth with 3ART Best of Bike fifth and JMA Racing Action Bike completing the top six Superstock finishers.
BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team started the Bol d’Or on pole position for the third year in a row as one of four teams chasing the overall title. After Markus Reiterberger set a new lap record – 1:52.517 – for BMW in the lead early on Sunday morning, a crash by rookie Hannes Soomer put Yoshimura SERT Motul back in the lead. The crash also sidelined the Estonian with a shoulder injury and forced Reiterberger and Illya Mykhalchyk to finish the race as a duo, albeit with significant mechanical problems.
There was also disappointment for Tati Team Beringer Racing and FCC TSR Honda France, both of whom failed to finish the race due to engine failures after leading from the start. Honda Viltaïs Racing was on course to complete the podium after a long battle with KM99 but retired due to engine problems.
Maco Racing, Wójcik Racing and Mana-au Competition achieved their best results of the season with fifth, sixth and seventh places respectively in Formula EWC but Motobox Kremer Racing had to withdraw.
Kawasaki Webike Trickstar, who had been in the top 10, had to retire after 6.15pm due to engine failure. Meanwhile, ADSS 97 retired with Kawasaki due to overheating issues, while BMRT3D maxxwss Nevers, Honda No Limits, Tati Team Beringer Racing, Team Bolliger Switzerland and Uniserv Moto82 Team all retired overnight.
Having impressed throughout qualifying and also leading the Superstock class in the early stages, EWC newcomers Hungarian Endurance Racing Team by Moto-Jungle suffered Bol d’Or heartache when an engine failure forced them to retire just before 17:45. Superstock qualifying leaders Tecmas MRP BMW Racing Team and Team Aviobike by M2 Revo were firmly in the race for the top three when they suffered problems. Team Étoile were leading their class when they were forced to retire on Sunday morning.
Superstock Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki, Slider Endurance, Pitlane Endurance – JP3, Team Players, Team Racing 85 by Soleane all finished but Honda No Limits, Team TCP Racing and Team 202 were less fortunate.
