Étienne Masson wants Team Suzuki CN Challenge to reach Saturday’s Top 10 Trial but insists gathering data for the future is more important than on-track success at Suzuka for the FIM Endurance World Championship’s ground-breaking new entrant.
Competing in the Experimental class in round three of the 2024 EWC season, Team Suzuki CN Challenge’s factory-supported GSX-R1000R CN SPEC utilises 40 per cent bio-sourced sustainable ELF Moto R40 FIM fuel, plus other eco-friendly products.
They include a bio-sourced base oil from Motul, a catalytic converter developed by Yoshimura, low-dust brake pads from Sunstar Engineering, tyres from Bridgestone that use an increased ratio of recycled materials, front and rear fenders made from a natural flax fibre supplied by Bcomp, plus racing bodywork provided by JHI and utilising recycled carbon materials.
Following Wednesday’s unofficial test, which Team Suzuki CN Challenge completed with a best lap of 2m07.785s – Team HRC was quickest with a 2m06.119s – Masson said: “The project is really good and really interesting for us, especially for me because I understand we need to work for the future and it’s really interesting.
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“For the team it will be good to be in the Top 10 trial to show the performance of the bike, the fuel and the tyres and it will be cool for the team, for Suzuki and for Bridgestone.
“But we have no clear target for the race, we just need to finish the race to show the bike is really strong. It’s really interesting for the discipline of endurance racing, it’s really important to show we can improve our carbon impact. It’s really important for everyone here.”
Masson usually races in the Formula EWC category for Suzuki-powered Yoshimura SERT Motul, a key partner in the Team Suzuki CN Challenge project, and won the 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans in April.
“The base of the bike is completely the same as the Yoshimura bike, but we have some details we change a lot, like the fuel and the tyres. Because we change a lot we need to understand how we can be fast with these details so we need to adapt the setting for the bike. We work on everything, we improve and we see what happens.”
Japanese riders Sodo Hamahara and Hideyuki Ogata complete the Team Suzuki CN Challenge line-up for the 45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race, which takes place from 19-21 July.
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
