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BMW Communications
BMW Communications
BMW Communications
04/21/2008 - 12:12 PM
Le Mans, France
After a weekend of problems due to the varying weather conditions, Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s trio of Richard Cooper, José Luis Nion and Brian Parriott were heading for a hard-fought for top 15 finish, until a last lap drama ruled them out.
On the very last lap of the 24-hour marathon, Richard was riding smoothly and cruising to the finish, when his bike suddenly suffered a loss of power at the end of the pit straight. He managed to keep it going until La Chapelle, where the marshals told him that he had five minutes to get it across the finish line in order to post a result. He got a bit of a tow from another rider and then began the long, hard push 200 or so meters from the finish line. But instead of being allowed to cross the finish line, he was directed into the pit-lane by a group of marshals because he was adjudged to be outside the five-minute limit! Because of that, he and his team mates were not classified as finishers in the results.
BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s other team (Sébastien Le Grelle, Stéphane Mertens and Rico Penzkofer) had suffered misfortune just before half race distance. They were on course for a tremendous top ten finish, when the bike suffered a dramatic loss of power. Stéphane Mertens felt the bike slow on the front straight, so pulled the bike off the track just before the Dunlop bridge. Before long, one the team’s mechanics appeared and together they tried to restart the bike. But, on hearing a strange noise, they decided that – in the interests of safety – it would be better not to continue. But before both dramas, the team had more than proved their capability and, if things had gone smoothly, one of both bikes would have been in the top ten at the end for sure.
Once again, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took first and second places in the Le Mans 24 hours. Last year’s race winners – Suzuki no 2, ridden by William Costes, Guillaume Dietrich and Dutchman Barry Veneman – won this year’s race, 11 laps ahead of the Suzuki no 1 of Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien da Costa, with the Yamaha Acropolis Motor Expert trio of Grégory Fastre, Grégory Leblanc and Anthony Dos Santos third.
Bike No 71
Richard Cooper: “All weekend the bike has never skipped a beat and even riding in the rain when it was dark was not a problem. In fact, I really got on with it and didn’t have any dramas or ‘moments’ at all. All weekend, we were chasing a top 15 place and – up until the last lap – I think we were achieving our goals. Our highest placing was 14th, but that felt comfortable and we believed we could hold on to that OK.
“After Brian’s crash we lost well over four laps, but our team worked hard to get us back on the track quickly and gave us the chance to regain our position. The bike worked very well and we had a good set-up – for rain or dry – and all three of us were running pretty consistent lap times, so we had an idea of what we could achieve. The end was a disaster and although I tried my best to get the bike back in time, I couldn’t because the distance was too great. I am absolutely gutted and even though my body
should be full of aches and pains I just feel numb at the moment.”
Jose Luis Nion: “I feel disappointed and sad for the whole team who have worked so hard these past days. All the effort they’ve put in has come to nothing and that’s hard to take. The bike worked really well and was problem-free (apart from Brian’s small crash) until the last lap. Today, we just didn’t get any luck, but racing is like that sometimes and we have to get over it and start thinking and working towards the next race.”
Brian Parriott: I crashed in the pouring rain, when the back suddenly came round without warning. I hadn’t been going particularly fast or giving it too much gas – it just happened. Because of the soaking conditions, I ended up sliding a long way and ended up in the dirt and mud. I went to the bike, picked up and restarted it OK and rode it back to the pits so that my mechanics could get to work repairing the damage. My leathers were so badly covered in mud, that the rest of the mechanics asked me if I had been doing a bit of mud-wrestling! We lost about 15 minutes because of the crash, but the guys worked really well and got us back on track super fast. We then started regaining positions and were doing really good until the last lap drama.”
Bike 17
Stéphane Mertens: I am disappointed for sure because we all believed that a top ten finish was a real possibility and we showed that capability in the race until the moment we had a problem. I was on the bike when there was a sudden loss of power, so I had no choice but to pull off the track. I tried to restart it, but I heard a bit of a noise. Then, one of mechanics arrived and we tried to restart it again but, when the noise happened again, we thought it would be better (and safer) if we retired. Up to then I had been comfortable and really enjoying my comeback to racing after missing last season. But this kind of upset happens sometimes, so we just have to forget about it and look to the next race.”
Berti Hauser (Director of BMW Motorrad Motorsport): “Is it some kind of unwritten rule that our second race of the season should end badly? Last year, our second race of the year was a bit of a disaster and this year has been exactly the same! Nevertheless, I think that we, as a team, showed the capability of the bike this weekend. Our goal was to finish in the top ten and we were in the top ten during the race, despite the ever-changing conditions. But for the dramas of the crash and then the last lap problem, I am sure we’d have finished in the top ten and that would’ve been a great result.
“Although we are all a bit disappointed about how things turned out, particularly with bike No 71 at the end, we are not complaining because the rules are the rules. If things had worked out differently this weekend, we would’ve finished with one bike in the top ten and the other in the top fifteen. However, racing can be cruel sometimes and today we all suffered. We’re not going to dwell on what happened in Le Mans, because we’re going to start looking forward immediately to our next race and doing everything to get a pair of good results.”
On the very last lap of the 24-hour marathon, Richard was riding smoothly and cruising to the finish, when his bike suddenly suffered a loss of power at the end of the pit straight. He managed to keep it going until La Chapelle, where the marshals told him that he had five minutes to get it across the finish line in order to post a result. He got a bit of a tow from another rider and then began the long, hard push 200 or so meters from the finish line. But instead of being allowed to cross the finish line, he was directed into the pit-lane by a group of marshals because he was adjudged to be outside the five-minute limit! Because of that, he and his team mates were not classified as finishers in the results.
BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s other team (Sébastien Le Grelle, Stéphane Mertens and Rico Penzkofer) had suffered misfortune just before half race distance. They were on course for a tremendous top ten finish, when the bike suffered a dramatic loss of power. Stéphane Mertens felt the bike slow on the front straight, so pulled the bike off the track just before the Dunlop bridge. Before long, one the team’s mechanics appeared and together they tried to restart the bike. But, on hearing a strange noise, they decided that – in the interests of safety – it would be better not to continue. But before both dramas, the team had more than proved their capability and, if things had gone smoothly, one of both bikes would have been in the top ten at the end for sure.
Once again, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took first and second places in the Le Mans 24 hours. Last year’s race winners – Suzuki no 2, ridden by William Costes, Guillaume Dietrich and Dutchman Barry Veneman – won this year’s race, 11 laps ahead of the Suzuki no 1 of Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien da Costa, with the Yamaha Acropolis Motor Expert trio of Grégory Fastre, Grégory Leblanc and Anthony Dos Santos third.
Bike No 71
Richard Cooper: “All weekend the bike has never skipped a beat and even riding in the rain when it was dark was not a problem. In fact, I really got on with it and didn’t have any dramas or ‘moments’ at all. All weekend, we were chasing a top 15 place and – up until the last lap – I think we were achieving our goals. Our highest placing was 14th, but that felt comfortable and we believed we could hold on to that OK.
“After Brian’s crash we lost well over four laps, but our team worked hard to get us back on the track quickly and gave us the chance to regain our position. The bike worked very well and we had a good set-up – for rain or dry – and all three of us were running pretty consistent lap times, so we had an idea of what we could achieve. The end was a disaster and although I tried my best to get the bike back in time, I couldn’t because the distance was too great. I am absolutely gutted and even though my body
Jose Luis Nion: “I feel disappointed and sad for the whole team who have worked so hard these past days. All the effort they’ve put in has come to nothing and that’s hard to take. The bike worked really well and was problem-free (apart from Brian’s small crash) until the last lap. Today, we just didn’t get any luck, but racing is like that sometimes and we have to get over it and start thinking and working towards the next race.”
Brian Parriott: I crashed in the pouring rain, when the back suddenly came round without warning. I hadn’t been going particularly fast or giving it too much gas – it just happened. Because of the soaking conditions, I ended up sliding a long way and ended up in the dirt and mud. I went to the bike, picked up and restarted it OK and rode it back to the pits so that my mechanics could get to work repairing the damage. My leathers were so badly covered in mud, that the rest of the mechanics asked me if I had been doing a bit of mud-wrestling! We lost about 15 minutes because of the crash, but the guys worked really well and got us back on track super fast. We then started regaining positions and were doing really good until the last lap drama.”
Bike 17
Stéphane Mertens: I am disappointed for sure because we all believed that a top ten finish was a real possibility and we showed that capability in the race until the moment we had a problem. I was on the bike when there was a sudden loss of power, so I had no choice but to pull off the track. I tried to restart it, but I heard a bit of a noise. Then, one of mechanics arrived and we tried to restart it again but, when the noise happened again, we thought it would be better (and safer) if we retired. Up to then I had been comfortable and really enjoying my comeback to racing after missing last season. But this kind of upset happens sometimes, so we just have to forget about it and look to the next race.”
Berti Hauser (Director of BMW Motorrad Motorsport): “Is it some kind of unwritten rule that our second race of the season should end badly? Last year, our second race of the year was a bit of a disaster and this year has been exactly the same! Nevertheless, I think that we, as a team, showed the capability of the bike this weekend. Our goal was to finish in the top ten and we were in the top ten during the race, despite the ever-changing conditions. But for the dramas of the crash and then the last lap problem, I am sure we’d have finished in the top ten and that would’ve been a great result.
“Although we are all a bit disappointed about how things turned out, particularly with bike No 71 at the end, we are not complaining because the rules are the rules. If things had worked out differently this weekend, we would’ve finished with one bike in the top ten and the other in the top fifteen. However, racing can be cruel sometimes and today we all suffered. We’re not going to dwell on what happened in Le Mans, because we’re going to start looking forward immediately to our next race and doing everything to get a pair of good results.”
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