After an heroic battle over 774 laps, the Honda Endurance Racing team has finished the 24 Heures Motos in 19th position scoring 11 Endurance World Championship points.
An action-packed 24-hour race unfolded for Honda’s endurance specialists Freddy Foray, Julien Da Costa and Sébastien Gimbert following the race start at 1500hrs on Saturday 9 April. Gimbert started the race for the team from sixth on the grid but after the opening laps was down in 13th place.
Riding hard aboard the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP, Gimbert fought his way through the pack and by lap 17 was sitting in eighth position. The next few laps proved crucial and, after a safety car deployment and careful riding by Gimbert at the first pit stop, the team were sitting second.
With Foray and Da Costa taking their own turns on the CBR machine all three riders rode faultlessly over a 15-hour period to hold onto second position. However, at around 5am on Sunday morning Gimbert pitted early, reporting a possible issue with the machine.
The Honda crew got to work and Foray headed back on track, but returned immediately reporting the same problem. Over the next hour the team worked tirelessly but saw Foray heroically push the CBR back to the box several times reporting the same issue. An electrical problem was finally traced to a failed sensor and the team got Foray back on track as soon as possible.
Rejoining the action in 32nd position the remainder of the race ran smoothly for the squad with no further issues and it was down to the riders to make the time up on track. At 1500hrs Foray crossed the finish line in 19th place, after pulling back ten seconds on the final lap.
Fellow Honda supported F.C.C TSR Honda enjoyed a solid debut performance in the Endurance World Championship, putting in an impressive display to finish the 24-hours on the podium in third place.
Meanwhile Honda-supported Superstock team Jackson Racing, who were running in third place during the early stages, suffered a gear selection issue with their machine which brought their 24-hour race to a premature finish. The team retired just after 6am when in 21st place.
The Honda Endurance Racing team sits 11th overall in the championship standings and now heads to Portimao in Portugal for testing ahead of the next EWC round there, the Portimao 12-hours, on 11 June.
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