2019 FIM World Endurance Championship Series Final Round Report
■Participated Race:42nd Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race (Suzuka 8 Hours)
■Circuit: Suzuka Circuit / Japan
■Date: July 26-28, 2019
■Team Name: EVA RT Webike Tati Team TRICK STAR (E.W.T.T)
■Rider: Julien Enjolras / Kevin Denis / Bastien Mackels
■Team Director: Ryuji Tsuruta
■ Result: Qualifying Round 32nd Place, Final Round 48th Place
Qualifying 1
The rainy season ended just before the race week, and it had been hotter day by day in Japan. The qualifying 1 was held in a dry condition throughout the day. Due to restrictions on the number of tires used in the regulation, E.W.T.T prepared two front tires and four rear tires and ran the first qualifying of 20 mins.
Rider Blue / Mackles
Because the road surface temperature was high, he selected medium hard tires and rode for the qualifying 1. He started the time attack with a 1 minute delay in order to avoid congestion. He was unable to hit the target time as expected due to the lack of grip performance of medium hard tires assuming the final race. The team changed to soft tires when the red flag displayed.
However, because the expected road surface temperature of soft tires was greatly exceeded by the heat wave, the time for the qualifying 1 could not be updated. As a result, the team used 2 out of 4 rear tires in the qualifying 1.
Rider Yellow / Kevin
He entered the course using the medium hard tires Mackles used earlier. Kevin rode the Suzuka Circuit for the first time during this race week. Because he needed to be used to the course, he lapped long in the qualifying, updated his personal best time and finished the qualifying 1.
Rider Red / Julian
Julian also had his first ride at Suzuka Circuit. He rode with the tires used by Mackles and Kevin. He also updated his personal best time and finished the qualifying 1.
Qualifying 2
The remaining tires are 1 for front and 2 for rear. They decided that the time attack was limited to 4 laps per person in order to hand over to the rider Red Julian with the front tires preserved as much as possible, and challenged qualifying 2.
Rider Blue / Mackles
Based on the reflection of the qualifying 1, he chose medium soft tires for the rear tires. The selection went well and he updated his personal best time on the 4 laps of his time attack. After finishing qualifying, Mackles was very regretful that he did not reach his target of 2 minutes 9 seconds rather than rejoicing his personal best time.
Rider Yellow / Kevin
He continued to use the tires used by Mackles. He also had a good feeling for the medium soft tire, so he succeeded in updating the best time to 12.9 seconds.
Rider Red / Julian
He rode with a new medium-soft tire on the rear tire. Thanks to the effect of preserving the front tire, he immediately updated his best time after he starts riding for the qualifying. He cut the time with each lap, and finally finished the qualifying with time of 12.5 seconds.
Since the qualifying results would be the average time of the three riders, the E.W.T.T team finished the qualifying round in 32nd place with an average time of 2 minutes and 11.972 seconds. In this qualifying round, Kevin and Julian who are first timers riding in the Suzuka circuit, succeeded in significantly cutting the time from 2 minutes 14 seconds to 2 minutes 12 seconds.
Final Round
Since the typhoon had passed the day before the final race, the final round was started in a fine weather. The start rider Mackles made a good start and passed control line in 19th place after the first lap. E.W.T.T has made a great start by overtaking 13 machines from the 32nd grid. After that, E.W.T.T went up the position smoothly. When they reached 15th place, a safety car was intervened because of an accident happened to another machine. The race restarted after 4 laps, Mackles dropped in 21st place soon after the restart, but he managed to regained his position quickly and placed himself to the group to compete for 13th place. He kept riding a good pace and the first pit stop time was coming.
The team decided to extend the 1 more lap after calculating the fuel consumption because the safety car was on the course for 4 laps. Then, at the time of pit-in lap.......there was an abnormality in the timing monitor. Mackles did not pass the Sector 3. The machine ran out of fuel around the hairpin curve and stopped. After that, Mackles desperately pushed the machine and returned to the pit, but this "out of fuel" incident caused the delay of the whole team and lost about 18 minutes of time.
As soon as Mackles returned to the pit, the team refueled and changed tires. The rider have changed to Kevin, and returned to the race in 53rd place. Kevin kept riding with almost his best lap time of the qualifying with a stable riding. E.W.T.T switched rider to Julian after the second stint. However, an accident occurred again that lap when Julian entered the course. He fell down on the second spoon curve of the outlap. He immediately stood up and returned to the course, but the machine needed to be repaired. The crew sets out to repair the machine. The machine was repaired in about 8 minutes, and Julian returned to the course.
After that, he kept riding smoothly without the impact of falling. However, the machine again was made an emergency pit stop after 10 laps. There seemed to be a problem with the engine. The staff changed the fuel tank, the rider switched to Mackles and pitted out, but the problem was not solved, and Mackles returned to the pit after that lap.
So, they decided to replace all parts that possibly caused the problems. Big work was started with all the staff. After about 50 minutes of work, the machine restarted again and Mackles returned to the course. The machine ran smoothly without any trouble again after that. After that, Kevin, Julian, and Mackles kept passing the baton without slowing the pace. Kevin entered the final stint about 50 minutes before the end of the race. It started to rain 15 minutes before the end of the race, so the pit crew busily started to prepare for the rain tires. However, the rain didn't get stronger and Kevin carefully continued to gain his laps in a small drop of rain.
Seven minutes before the end of the race, one machine caused an engine blow on the home straight. The machine was running until the S-shaped section while exhausting white smoke and sprinkled oil on the course.
Despite the fact that the night session visibility was very bad, Kevin kept running cautiously even in the most dangerous road condition due to rain and oil. However, a minute and a half before the end of race, The rider of the leading team KAWASAKI was slipped down due to the leaked oil. The red flag was then presented and the race ended.
Bastien Mackles's Comment
I was able to participate in this Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race in a very good environment. There was an accident during the race week, but the team prepared a good machine for me, Julian and Kevin. In the race, I had a good start and I was able to lap smoothly and raise my ranking. I was able to get in a good position and felt the response to go up.
However, pace car intervened before changing to the second rider due to an accident happened to the other machine, and this caused an out of fuel by increasing the number of laps, and I pushed the machine from the hairpin to return to the pit. I desperately aimed to the pit for the team. This resulted in a loss of less than 20 minutes. However this is also an endurance race ...
Without regret, we did our best as a team until the end of the competition. I am sure that this experience will make us better in the future. The result was not good, but it was a great experience.
I want to revenge again next year. I would like to thank the many fans I met at Suzuka, sponsors, team crew, Julian, Kevin and Tsuruta team manager.
Kevin Denis's Comment
I ran the Suzuka Circuit for the first time in race week. The circuit was very beautiful and wonderful, but I felt Suzuka 8 Hours was very difficult. It is a high-humidity, high-temperature condition and a very high-grip track. I was surprised that the competition was at a very high level with lots of factory and constructors machines. I have never had this kind of experience. However, I am able to reduce the lap time every time I run, and finished the race, so I think I was able to overcome it.
I think that I have grown as a rider again with this experience. This race was very exciting and memorable in my race life. I was also very happy to be surrounded by many fans.
I had the last stint run and it seemed to blend into a very moving scene. I was able to participate in the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race, which I had always dreamed of, and had a very happy experience. Huge thanks also to Tsuruta team manager, team Trick Star and Tati Team. Thank you to all the team members, sponsors and fans.
Julien Enjolras's Comment
I was able to participate in the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race, and had a very good experience. I thought that the Suzuka 8 Hours, which I participated for the first time, is a very high-level race. It was a very wonderful race that was a little different from the European race. I was also surprised by the popularity of Evangelion Racing and Trick Star and the number of fans.
I was very motivated because the fans cheered the riders including me. In the race, I fell down on my first run and I was sorry for the team. However, the team crew, Bastian, and Kevin supported me very much.
The result was disappointing, but I think we have had a good experience and have grown up in this race. I would like to revenge again. Finally, I thank all the team members, sponsors and fans.
Thank you SUZUKA!
Tsuruta Team Manager's Comment
First of all, thank you very much for your support in the hot weather. I am grateful to everyone who supported us in the special cheering seat. Also, I apologize to all the fans who had expected our success. The cause of this loss is that we had run out of fuel and my mistake in making the final decision. I take full responsibility. By the intervention of the safety car, the team was considering whether to increase the number of laps at that time.
Eventually, as a result of extending number of the lap at my discretion, I made the worst situation that machine exhausted fuel and stopped at the hairpin curve.
After that, Mackles desperately pushed the machine to come back to the pit, but it was far behind. I absolutely felt like having a nightmare, but it was real. I had some measures that wouldn't run out of fuel, but we didn't mesh well and fell into this situation. I regretted and was frustrated with myself feeling miserable. Until then, the machine was in a good condition, and the tires and fuel consumption were all good. Everything went smoothly. That is why I can't regret enough. However, the team did not hesitate and fought to the end despite that situation. The riders and the crew really did their best without overlooking their work.
I am grateful to all the team members who fought all the way to the end.
I had a very good experience with the first Suzuka 8 Hours participation and this season's EWC full participation with the France Tati Team. I was able to experience various things such as differences in language, culture and way of thinking. I am convinced that this experience is definitely the stage for future growth. Thanks to our partner Tati Team. Also, we were able to do our best because of the support of our sponsors, the people involved, and the fans who were always gave us enthusiastic encouragement. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you very much. We will continue to challenge for the next. Thank you for your continued support.
Photo: Nobuki Ishizaki & Shirou Kawasaki
Original Source [ Webike Motosport ]
