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Kawasaki France Takes Victory Ahead of YART and SERT
Issued 9th August 2008
 Team Kawasaki France took victory at the Oschersleben 8 Hours, fourth round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, with a one-lap lead over Yamaha Austria Racing Team and two laps over Suzuki Endurance Racing Team.
Kawasaki France gets the victory that was running away from them since the beginning of the season. At Oschersleben, Erwan Nigon, Julian Mazuecos and Ivan Silva completed the perfect race.
That’s also the case for the trio Steve Plater, Igor Jerman and Steve Martin, who took the first podium of the season for Yamaha Austria Racing Team. YART is confirming their excellent performance at Suzuka, where they finished as first permanent team and moved to the second place at the championship, which is still led by the SERT.
The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team made a come back after a mid race crash. The drama happened when Matthieu Lagrive, then leading on the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, crashed.
 Back on track in tenth place, SERT riders Matthieu Lagrive, Julien Da Costa and Vincent Philippe, Philippe still suffering from a broken ankle after a crash at Suzuka.
The team worked like mad to secure a third position on the podium and score some useful points towards the 2008 championship.
Three Yamaha had a fantastic race to finish in the top-six.
Phase One Endurance certainly ran out of luck, while in a strong third place, Damian Cudlin, Graeme Gowland and Sébastien Scarnato could not hold off the official Suzuki’s comeback in the last hour and finished in fourth place.
YMES Folch Endurance is still making strong impression in their first full season of Endurance: Dani Ribalta and Pedro Vallcaneras finished in fifth place and move up to fifth place in the championship standings.
Maco Moto Racing took its best result of the season so far: Warwick Nowland and Jason Pridmore finished sixth on the Slovak Yamaha.
 Tenth at Le Mans, the surprising Suzuki AM Moto Racing took seventh place with Sullivan Hernandez, Pierre Guersillon and Fabrice Auger.
They lead a group of permanent teams: RMT 21, Diablo 666 Bolliger Kawasaki, La Fortezza Amadeus X-One and Qatar Endurance Racing Team IJT, first in the Superstock class, ahead of Team LTG 57 and ABG Performance who took its second podium this season.
The top German teams could not reach the end of the race. Yamaha Motor Deutschland, who was leading the race on lap six, after being a strong challenger of the early race, came back to the pits after three hours, with a broken clutch.
The Honda Holzhauer Racing, in a good position at the beginning of the race, spent a lot of time in the pits due to set-up problems. The machine, ridden by Martin Bauer, Matthias Von Hammerstein and Michael Schumacher didn’t finish the race. The Suzuki Yoshimura Germany of Werner Daemen, Olivier Depoorter and Didier Van Keymeulen, went the furthest. In the top-ten at the beginning of the race, the team had to retire following engine problems.
It was a weekend for some of the permanent teams. Endurance Moto 38 was seriously delayed after the big crash of William Grarre and finished out of the points.
 Endurance Moto 45 lost any chance of a Superstock podium after some front-end problems. Some of the teams did not see the chequered flag:
Bolliger Switzerland had to face an engine breakdown after the first hour, as they were in seventh place; Runner Bike, then in a battle for a Superstock podium, also had to retire after an engine breakdown. For Raffin Moto, it was an electronic problem.
Engaged in the Open class, the two BMW Motorrad finished the race in twelfth and thirteenth position.
The next round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship will take place in France at Nevers Magny-Cours for a 24 Hours race, the 13th and 14th of September.
For information visit www.fimendurance.com
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April 19th / 20th
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France
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Le Mans 24 H
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May 10th
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Spain
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Albacete 6 H
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July 27th
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Japan
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Suzuka 8 H
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August 9th
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Germany
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Oschersleben 8 H
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September 13th / 14th
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France
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Bol d’Or 24 H
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November 8th
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Qatar
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Doha/Losail 8 H
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