It’s a month to go until the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps hosts round two of the 2025 FIM Endurance World Championship, the 8 Hours of Spa Motos.
And Karel Hanika, who was part of the Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team that won the inaugural edition in 2024, can’t wait for the Belgian event to begin on 7 June.
“Bring on Spa,” the Czech rider said after he partnered Marvin Fritz and Jason O’Halloran to victory in the EWC season-opening 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans last month.
Prior to last year’s 8 Hours of Spa Motos, no rider had lapped the 6.985-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps faster than Hanika, who recorded the original benchmark time of 2m18.845s in qualifying for the 24H SPA EWC Motos in 2022. That was until team-mate Fritz lowered Hanika’s standard to 2m18.552s during qualifying for the 8 Hours of Spa Motos last June to set up the YART team’s 2024 Belgian victory.
Looking back on YART’s Spa triumph last season, Hanika said: “In an eight-hour race, it is easy to make a mistake, as it is more like a sprint, but the whole team was faultless, and we produced an incredible performance.”
Fritz added: “When we came here for the testing we saw it would be tough because we knew we would need a bit more fuel and one more pitstop in the race than our competitors. For sure in qualifying we were super-fast and to have the new lap record at Spa is amazing. But we knew the race would be tough and our only chance was from the beginning to put the pressure on all the others. Niccolò (Canepa) started amazing and me and Karel continued like Niccolò started and pushed every lap, we had to but we made it made it perfect and the team did amazing job, everyone giving 110 per cent. Everyone deserved this victory.”
The second 8 Hours of Spa Motos takes place from 6-7 June. Free Practice is up first from 09h00-11h00 CET on Friday 6 June followed by First Qualifying from 13h55 and Second Qualifying from 16h25. After a 30-minute Warm-up from 09h00 on Saturday 7 June, the build-up to the 8 Hours of Spa Motos begins with the race due to get under way at 12h30 live on television and online around the world.
As well as counting for the FIM Endurance World Championship, the 8 Hours of Spa Motos is a round of the Superstock-based FIM Endurance World Cup and the FIM Endurance World Trophy for production motorcycles. Click HERE for ticket details and click HERE for more event information.
Watch the 8 Hours of Spa Motos teaser video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESVnDe8FV_8
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
