Reserve riders in the FIM Endurance World Championship aren’t just on standby in the event of getting a late call to replace a colleague forced onto the sidelines.
As Robin Mulhauser and James Westmoreland have revealed there’s plenty to keep them busy before and during an EWC race.
Swiss rider Mulhauser, 32, is the back-up for Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team trio Niccolo Canepà, Marvin Fritz and Karel Haneka. He explained his job within the Austian squad.
I am here in case somebody gets hurt in the team, but I also prepare many things for my team-mates for the race. For example, when they have the qualifying bike for the qualifying, me I prepare the race bike. I prepare the brakes, I prepare sometimes the tyres, I prepare some parts and I check if the race bike is okay. So I also have a quite important role and I am also here to ride a little.
Most of the time [in the fourth ‘green rider’ sessions] I’m actually scrubbing tyres, brake pads, brake discs or testing some settings. But also to have a small reward if the session is 20 minutes sometimes I have 10 minutes to also ride a little bit. Basically if something happens I have to be ready and know the bike.
It’s going to be my third year with the team and all works really fine. We’re a big family, even with me as a fourth rider.
Of course, I would like to race although I don’t want one of my team-mates to have a problem. At first it was hard to understand how it works because you are not really the priority of the team. But it’s a big honour to be part of factory team, I have always been a Yamaha rider and I was proud of our achievement last year in winning the title.
The race is the boring moment because you feel useless a bit and you can’t help that much. If something happens I try to help but if not I just go to watch, it’s the moment when I am done.
Briton Westmoreland, 35 (pictured right, above), provides a supporting role to Honda Viltaïs Racing and its trio of Florian Alt, Leandro Marcado and Steven Odendaal.
The fourth rider at Viltaïs is actually a special role,” Westmoreland explained. From the outside it looks like we do not that much but actually I’m a really integral part of the team. It’s my fourth year here and I enjoy it a lot.*
During the week I give my feedback on the bike, I try different things, like a tyre that’s different to what we expect. I run the discs and the brake pads in. I check things on the bike so it’s a difficult role actually because you have some pressure to make the right decisions and the right comments.
Obviously I want to race but I don’t want any of my team-mates to be injured. If that situation were to arise for sure it would not be so easy because the level of my team-mates and the level of the team is really high. In certain situations I can be really strong but we would have to see. It’s my fourth year here but it’s also my fourth year without a 24-hour race so it would be a big ask but in the correct condition I think I could do a good job.
When the race is running I would like to say I go back to the hotel and sleep but that’s not true. I’m there for everybody. I’m another pair of eyes on track and in the garage, in the pitlane watching other teams. After every stint I’m there to help the riders because we’re a special team and we’re really close. We all have our part to play and without every single person we don’t achieve the results so I take a lot of satisfaction from the work I do and being part of the team.
The 47th edition of the 24 Heures Motos opens the 2024 EWC season at Le Mans in France from 18-21 April.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
