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The Suzuki factory team took a brilliant victory at the glorious 24 Hours of the Bol D'Or of the FIM EWC on the French circuit of Paul Ricard ahead of Moto Ain Yamaha and the amazing BMRT 3D Maxxess Nevers Kawasaki, a team in the Superstock class. Already winner of the 2019 edition, the revamped Yoshimura SERT Motul led the race for 615 of the 704 laps, beating the previous record of 698 dating back to 2018.
The trio made up of Gregg Black, Xavier Simeon and Sylvain Guintoli held off the attacks from their rivals in the opening stages, quickly taking control of the race, helped by the early retirements of the YART-Yamaha Team and Webike SRC Kawasaki France Trickstar, on paper both capable of bothering the GSX-R 1000.
Although 19 laps behind the winners, despite a small crash in the final stages, Moto Ain got on the podium in its first season in the EWC class thanks to Randy de Puniet, Robin Mulhauser and Italian Roberto Rolfo. Four laps behind the YZF-R1, BMRT 3D Maxxess Nevers wrote a page in World Endurance history, finishing third at the ì line. It is rare to find a Superstock line-up on the podium at the end of a 24-hour race (the last time it happened was at the 2014 Bol D'Or), yet Anthony Loiseau, Jonathan Hardt and Julien Pilot managed to accomplish this feat, remaining at the top of the category for 621 of the 681 total laps.
The icing on the cake came with the conquest of the FIM Superstock 2021 World Cup, the top laurels for the Kawasaki team, with one round remaining. While the top-3 testified to the balance in FIM EWC through with different manufacturers (Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki) and tyre suppliers (Bridgestone, Dunlop, Michelin) on the podium.
Two other Superstock teams held their head high against the factory EWC teams - RAC41 ChromeBurner Honda in fourth, and the Italian No Limits Motor Team Suzuki squad (headed by Moreno Codeluppi with Luca Scassa, Kevin Calia and Alexis Masbou the riders) in fifth - ahead of VRD Igor Experiences with Florian Alt, Florian Marino and Nico Terol who got a good start but ruined everything with a crash. In what turned into an elimination race, only 20 of the 41 teams entered took the chequered flag. OG Motorsport by Sarazin and Falcon Racing finished in seventh and eighth position respectively, ahead of Motobox Kremer Racing and Maco Racing Team (both of the EWC class).
Among those teams forced to throw in the white towel were the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team, FCC TSR Honda France and ERC Endurance Ducati (with Lorenzo Zanetti in the crew), the latter put out of action while fighting for the podium thanks to a disastrous crash by Mathieu Gines which literally disintegrated the Panigale V4-R. There was an engine failure for Bolliger Team Switzerland and Wójcik Racing Team, a seized gearbox for 3ART Best of Bike, a mechanical problem for Team 18 Sapeurs-Pompiers CMS Motostore and an oil leak for National Motos Honda. Team 33 Louit Moto attempted to continue racing with two riders following Luca Vitali's forfeit, but he was forced to throw in the towel.
The next race, as well as the final round of the FIM EWC 2021, will take place on the weekend of 9 October at the new Most circuit in the Czech Republic.
