Team Kawasaki Webike Trickstar overcame two lengthy pitstops to score FIM Endurance World Championship points when Suzuka hosted round three of the season earlier this month.
Riders Randy de Puniet, Grégory Leblanc and Kazuki Watanabe finished 12th in the 44th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race and will head to the Bol d’Or season decider fifth in the provisional standings.
Had it not been for the two technical issues that delayed the #11 Kawasaki by eight minutes, Leblanc reckoned a top-five finish would have been possible.
A top result would have been envisaged but the law of endurance struck again, Leblanc wrote on Facebook. The positive point of this race is we showed that we were good and we move up to fifth in the world championship.
The Bol d’Or 24-hour race takes place at Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France from 14-17 September.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
