F.C.C. TSR Honda France’s capture of the FIM Endurance World Championship came down to a refusal to accept defeat, according to Josh Hook, one of the team’s ace riders.
The Japanese squad lost the chance to win the 100th-anniversary Bol d’Or at Circuit Paul Ricard yesterday after dropping down the order due to a handful of mechanical issues.
However, as Hook revealed, there was never a point at which he and his colleagues thought it wouldn’t reach the finish and secure the prestigious FIM Endurance World Championship for Teams for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
“I know from the past never to think the race is over until the chequered flag,” said Australian rider Hook. “We’ve come back from much worse situations and won races in the past. We did run into some dramas as everyone else did it seems. We never gave up on it and just kept chipping away. We did a lot of really good race runs all throughout the night and we were consistently fast all three of us. Basically, we were going to see where we were at when the sun came up in the morning but we never counted the win out at all. But it came to a point in time when we had to toss up whether we focused on the championship, which is obviously our main objective, or the race win. We decided to take care of the engine after getting a little nervous and seeing everyone else’s bikes blowing up and there wasn’t many left in the end. We tried to be as conservative as possible and just bring home the championship for our team, Honda and all our partners.”
All-season riders Mike Di Meglio and Hook were joined on the #5 Honda for the final event of the year by Alan Techer in place of Gino Rea, who suffered serious head injuries in a crash at Suzuka last month but helped F.C.C. TSR Honda France to podiums in the 24 Heures Motos and the 24H SPA EWC Motos earlier in the campaign. Click HERE to help Gino Rea.
#KeepFightingGino
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
