| | 24H00 Moto du Mans 2005 Suivante ›› | | |
 |
Décibels Endurance N°33 : Podium ! |
| La 33 commence l'année sur les chapeaux de roues ! Les 24 heures du Mans 2005 qui se sont déroulés les 16 et 17 Avril sur le circuit Bugatti marquait le début de la saison d'endurance moto. La 33 désormais sous les couleurs de DECIBELS à Bordeaux n'as pas manqué le rendez vous et était déjà donné comme une équipe pouvant prétendre à la victoire Stocksport. Le team à conservé ces deux pilotes anglais : Russel Baker et Phil Giles. Ceux ci se voyant épaulés par Bernard Cuzin, ex pilier de Endurance Moto 38. Beaucoup de partenaires nous ont cette année encore fait confiance : YAMAHA . MICHELIN . IPONE . DEVIL . CERNEAU . SUPER U ... Et de nouveaux partenaires se sont associé à l'aventure du désormais : DECIBELS Endurance 33 Merci à eux : Assurance Moto Verte . FINANCO . BIHR Racing . SPOOL ... Après des essais un peu difficiles du fait des conditions climatiques changeantes et d'un choix de pneus un peu restreint, nos 3 pilotes qualifieront la 33 en 18ème place sur la grille de départ. Certes un peu déçu de cette modeste place, nous étions confiant car nous avions validé tout nos choix de course : pneus, plaquettes, nombre de tours par relais, intervention si safety car, ... C'est Phil Giles qui sera désigné pour prendre le départ, car il apprécie la piste du Mans et nous à semblé le plus apte à placer la 33 dans le bon peloton. Hélas pour nous Phil rate son départ, peut être impressionné par Philippe Piedelievre ( Boss de DECIBELS ) qui lui tenait la moto. la 33 pointe à la 23ème place, Phil restera sage et remontera jusqu'a la 18ème place. Et alors que nous avions tablé sur des relais de 33 tours, la 33 s'engouffre dans la Pit Lane après seulement 27 tours ! Un peu pris de cours, Russel Baker enfourche la R1 et repart. Personne ne comprend pourquoi la moto est rentré si tôt, peut être consomme t'elle plus que durant les essais ? Le remplissage se fait il au maximum ? Ou le nouveau réservoir que nous utilisons fait il bien 24 litres comme l'autorise le règlement ? Nous avons reçu un réservoir neuf le vendredi, nous l'avons fait peindre dans la nuit, il était sur la moto le lendemain pour le départ à 15 heures ! Les relais suivants nous conforterons dans l'idée que le problème vient bien de notre réservoir ... Nous décidons donc d'attaquer pour comblé ce handicap, la 33 pointe à la 15ème place scratch à 1 heure du matin et 5ème stocksport. Aucun problème ne sera à déplorer dans la nuit ! Au petit matin notre place est resté la même, nous roulons vite mais ravitaillons trop souvent. Nous faisons le chat et la souris avec les motos qui précède. C'est en fin de matinée alors que nous somme en 9ème position que la course va changer de visage. La fraîcheur matinale à entraîné quelques chutes et les pilotes commencent à fatiguer ! Bernard Cuzin lui est en pleine forme, il est chargé de remonter sur 2 motos que nous pouvons rattraper il signera d'ailleurs son meilleur chrono du week end : 1.42.67. A 30 minutes de la fin la Kawasaki N°49, rentre dans son box pour problème technique !La course est perdu pour eux. Une 9ème place scratch et surtout un podium stocksport récompense le travail de temps de monde ! Rendez vous à Barcelone les 2 et 3 Juillet sur le célèbre circuit de Catalunya ou nous avons gagné l'année derniere en stocksport. Merci à vous tous qui contribué de près, de loi ou très loin à cette aventure extraordinaire ! Salutations Sportives Christophe Herriberry |
| Le Mans 2005 - 24hour Race It’s Monday morning and my Dad and I are on our merry way home, driving back to Calais with Keane playing on the CD player. Yet despite finishing a very long 24 hour endurance event we are already well into another race, the race for the ferry ! To be honest this is a race we don’t mind losing, as we have just been in the Victory circle... again! This year, as I mentioned in my last bulletin prior to Lemans, we have new bikes and a new Sponsor. The bikes looked trick in there new blue and white livery. Christophe and his team have worked solidly for months preparing two immaculate machines. The riders have been working hard in the gym to achieve a very high level of fitness as this year we have the bikes, the experience and the speed. Thus, we need to achieve! Last year Russell and I arrived on the Tuesday evening ready for the 2nd 1.5hr Free Practice on the Wednesday but this year we both arrived for the Tuesday session. The bikes had already had there debut outing on the track via the official test in March in the hands of our new French team-mate, Bernard Cuzin. Before this Laurent informed me he rode 2000kms in sub zero conditions during the winter running the bikes in on the road. Normally that would be me. The advantages of riding for a factory team!! Practice Tuesday for me was a little none event as I only got about 6 laps in, and they were not very quick. Last year we completed 752 laps of the 4.1km circuit, of which I must have done 250approx. Yet I was lost and had no timing at all. I don’t think I hit more than 3 apexes on any one of my laps. This is what happens when you have 6months without riding. This bike however seemed strong. Russ was lapping well and Bernard was flying. Wednesday proved much better. I ran around the circuit Tuesday night to familiarise myself once more with the sharp hairpin curves of the Bugatti circuit. Once on board at 11am Wednesday morning I was immediately lapping at last years race pace 1m46s bracket and hitting my apex’s. After my stint I handed the reins over to Russ. Several laps into his stint he was missing! However, the local airport did notice a momentary blip (or blimp, only joking Russ) on their radar screens. Russ got a little carried away with the extra power the team had extracted from the Yamaha R1 and was using it to its full when it launched him into orbit. He landed on a soft part of his anatomy, mainly his head so nothing broken. He was very sore for the rest of our time in France. In his words “It hurts more than I’m letting on!” Thursday morning Russ and I have had the machine altered to give a better feel to the bike in more stability during braking, and importantly more feel for rear end grip. Qualifying The riders are separated in to 3 groups which is determined by their (transponder fitted) coloured arm bands which must be worn every time the rider goes on track. In traditional French national colours we have groups blue, white and red. In the program we are list in alphabetical order Baker, Cuzin and Giles, and the arm bands were issues blue, white and red respectively. We had a rain shower an hour before 1st qualifying and my team mates were struggling to find some speed. Russ, who normally revels in the wet was down in 34th place and Bernard, who was riding in damp conditions with a wet front tyre and intermediate rear tyre was 42nd with a time off 1min 56.2s. 10mins later I managed to put a time of 1min 50.4 putting me firmly into 14th. The 2nd session was a little better with Russ and Bernard 25th and 18th respectively. I set off for my final 30min qualifying on a dry track but with Bernard’s used tires. He managed a 1min 44.3s. After 15mins I was in 8th place with a 1min 43.1s lap. I pitted for a fresh rear Michelin, confident that with a good clean lap with no traffic I could manage a mid 42s lap. As the tyre was being changed, water was pouring from the belly pan of the bike. This was traced to a split water pipe but there was no time to repair and return to the track. By the end of the session I had dropped down to 17th. For final grid positions all the rider’s times are aggregated and this put us 18th overall and 5th in class. Saturday After warm-up Christophe called for a team meeting. With Russ, Bernard and I present we discussed who will start. It was a team discussion to offer me the start, based on my practice times. I accepted, who wouldn’t! 2.50pm all the riders attempted a mock start to precede the 2 warm up laps. Once completed all the machines were lined up across the pit wall (left in 1st gear with ignitions on) and riders on the opposite side of the track watching the man with the flag. 3pm the French national flag dropped, the 100,000 people in the packed grandstands cheered and 56 leather clad racers ran across the track to their awaiting machines. I jumped on board pressed the starter, the bike came to life and I gave her a big handful of throttle and started to release the clutch only to see the bike was no longer in 1st gear. Eek, a quick dap of the gear shift and there was a very loud clunk as 1st gear engaged whilst the motor was spinning at about 10,000rpm and then out again with the clutch….we’re off! Not the best start ever but I only lost a few places. I was however, a tad annoyed at this error, and I rode my socks off trying to get back as many places as possible. Every slide I had I kept thinking, good job I didn’t drop that or Christophe would drop me! At the end of my stint I came into pit lane in 13th place. This was an early surprise to the team as they expected to be able to run for 35laps – yet I had only run 27. Fortunately Russ was very keen to get on board and was already in leathers and helmet and took the number 33 machine out for his first stint of the race. After his stint he came to pit again at 27 laps, hoping that Bernard would be ready; but the team had not quite grasped the fuelling problem and Bernard was not ready. Russ had to go out again. It’s very hard doing a double stint at any time during a 24hr race. Normally though it is done during the night, or if there has been some rain. Russ was absolutely shattered, not to mention a little aggravated. His lap times had suffered to the point that his last laps before pitting he was lapping 7sec per lap slower than I had done in my stint. Subsequently, we had dropped down the leader board to 24th overall 11th in class, when Bernard took the helm and began to claw some time back. From this point on we were up against it. Russ, very stiff and sore from his big spill and full of painkillers was now very tired to boot. Bernard and I had to ride really hard every session day and night to catch the time lost from Russ’s stints and then make time on our rivals. It was a long process but after some tremendous stints from Bernard and I lapping in the 1min 42s bracket and 23hrs racing, we were in 10th place overall and up to 3rd in class Christophe called me over to ask if I could finish the race as it was looking like Bernard final stint would bring him in at around 2.35pm local time. I was delighted to be given the chance to finish what looked like it could be my 1st podium at Le Mans. We were all very excited at the prospect of a visit to the podium when one of the mechanics who wasn’t asleep jumped up and screamed something in French whilst pointing at the TV. I looked up at the screen to see the leading Stocksport runner Scratch Moto cruising back to the pits with a large amount of smoke coming from it. Scratch moto where a long way ahead of us, 28 laps, but could we now catch them? We were going to have to un-lap ourselves 28 times and then 1 more to take the position in the remaining 50mins. It was going to be close. Bernard pushed hard and we were down to just 12laps short when I was handed the number 33 for my final stint. I knew as I got on board that I could make the number of laps if the machine held together and I didn’t do anything silly. At 2.52pm on our 784th lap we passed Scratch Moto to take 2nd place. I proceeded to enjoy the last 8 minutes of racing. At the stroke of 3pm Sunday the chequered flag was waved and I crossed the line and headed straight over to the pit lane to meet the team. After several burn outs and more wheelies I returned to park ferme for the podium ceremony to begin. You can only imagine how hyper active a passionate French Team can be after the result like this. For information the total number of laps we achieved was 787, last years winners managed 766. What a difference a year makes !! So, now you’re all excited and know all about endurance racing, who’s coming to Barcelona in July? Phil Giles |
