For all things bikes

The prize stayed at home this year since the French SRC Kawasaki team of Julien da Costa, Grégory Leblanc and Olivier Four won the 24 Hours Moto Le Mans 2011.

Labelled as one of the most challenging road races for the past 34 years, the early September event presented many challenges for the FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) grid.

But when the time was over, it was the green colour equipped SRC Kawasaki team that took the win for the second consecutive year, after completing 834 laps -beating the former record by four.

The Kawasaki team lead from the start, but their race was not an easy ride. During the opening stages of the endurance race the no.11 Kawasaki was closely followed by the factory BMW team of Sébastien Gimbert, Erwan Nigon and Damien Cudlin, and eventually  passed by the  German team on lap 132 at around the fourth hour of the competition.

On the back of the S1000RR, the no.99 BMW team took turns on the German machine to pull a clear advantage ahead of the rest of bikers, but due to a series of mechanical and electrical problems in the early hours of the morning the trio would lose their lead.

That made the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) and Kawasaki SRC, take the lead, swapping the first position at their respective refuelling schedules. The no.11 Kawasaki team eventually took control of the lead when Susuki had to make an unscheduled stop in the remaining four hours of the race.

The race ended at 3 pm, with the SRC Kawasaki wining and the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team finishing just one lap behind.

British Honda TT Legends ended in fifth position in the endurance race.

"I have an extraordinary team of riders and some great mechanics. They all did an awesome job," said Gilles Staffler, SRC Kawasaki Team Manager.

In representation of the second placed team at the podium, Anthony Delhalle of Susuki, said: "That was a physical and demanding race. They all started very fast and the pace remained very high. We are a bit bitter not to win, but the positive thing is we are now back in the lead for the championship."

Be the first to comment on this.