I have always loved watching motorcycle endurance races and I started visiting the 24 hour race at Circuit Paul Ricard from the UK Midlands MANY years ago when I was a young student, on my Honda CB750K6 along with a group of mates. Tents, cash and maps were the order of the day!
Recently I have returned to this old love and in 2022 I attended the Bol Dor and goodness was it fun!! I have got to know Manfred Kainz who is the owner and General Manager of Team YART (Yamaha Austria Racing Team) and in 2022 he very kindly provided me with a VIP pass to the race. I drove up by van to Marseille having booked a room in a lovely hotel (Sofitel) in the Vieux Port area. Stunning hotel and location, shame about the staff but that is another story.
Fast forward to 2023 and I attended TWO Endurance races this year, in April I drove up to Le Mans and then September the Bol Dor again cos I really enjoy the atmosphere and the racing and I really love the fantastic Paul Ricard circuit one of the best in Europe. In April Brian the Barnes came to Le Mans from the UK by bike, I went in my van with a bike inside as the forecast was awful and indeed the race weekend was cold, wet and windy as was my long drive both north and south so I was very happy with my choice considering the 1800 kms each way!
This month I loaded a bike into my Vito and we headed up to Marseille. This time I chose and booked a Suite in the stunning Maisons du Monde Hotel. I was totally unaware that they only have 3 hotels in France (a new venture in which they show off their products) and that they have a very large chain of shops in France as well as Spain and Italy where they offer an upmarket version of IKEA so household goods and furnishings. STUNNING suite, luckily I booked many months in advance so the price was not bad.
And so to the track!! Circuit Paul Ricard is about 40 km east from Marseille so only about an hour by bike. I had the VIP pass booked (thanks YART) so I went on Wednesday to collect the pass and then by bike on Thursday (practice), Friday (qualification) as well as Saturday and Sunday for the race of course. Rain was forecast for Saturday and indeed it rained like hell but only in the morning, the race started at 1500 with a damp but drying track and YART gambled by starting on slicks whereas most teams selected intermediates so were forced to stop and change to slicks after only a few laps.
Long story short…..Suzuki France (SERT) led the race more or less from start to finish and took the race victory. The championship leaders Honda France dropped out with mechanical problems after about 8 hours and the pole setting BMW also retired so the YART Yamaha R1 was then able to slow down and limit the revs and to stop at least three times to attend to an overheating engine so radiator problem. The number 7 YART Yamaha finished the race in fouth position which then gave the team the championship win!!!!
See some of my pictures below where I spend some time on Saturday inside the YART box, what an experience thanks guys and see you next year!!!
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