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15/08/2005: "Suzuki Win Endurance Championship"

Team Suzuki Castrol are the 2005 World Endurance Champions after a sensational walk-away victory at today's penultimate fourth round at Oschersleben in Germany.

The French-based SERT team of Keiichi Kitagawa, Matthieu Lagrive and Vincent Philippe raced their GSX-R1000 to victory in the 24-hour event, winning by more than 20 laps despite an early crash.

The victory put them 45 points clear of Kawasaki Bolliger in the five-round series with only 25 points available. From the start of qualifying on Thursday it looked as though the race would come down to a four way battle between Suzuki Castrol, Yamaha Austria, Yamaha Phase One Endurance and Kawasaki Bolliger, with only Phase One and the Austrians able to challenge Suzuki Castrol for the championship title.

The race itself was action packed, with Suzuki Castrol and Yamaha Austria both crashing on oil in the opening 15 minutes. Both riders were able to rejoin the race, but Suzuki Castrol rider Philippe injured his left wrist in the fall. With the two fit Suzuki Castrol riders Keiichi Kitagawa and Matthieu Lagrive doing back-to-back sessions both Yamaha Austria and Yamaha Phase One saw a chance to pile the pressure.

Yamaha Phase One paid the price of this blistering pace just before midnight when their engine failed. Yamaha Austria held second place through the night, but a high-side crash by Thomas Hinterreiter in his first session in daylight on Sunday morning left the bike unrideable.

Kawasaki Bolliger and Kawasaki Diablo had been putting in reliable lap after reliable lap. The Bolliger bike made an unplanned stop to replace an exhaust system and another to change a leaking front fork, but otherwise the two Kawasakis ran a perfect race, finishing second and third behind the dominant Suzuki.

Further down the field, Suzuki No Limits & RT Motor Team, Suzuki Bridgestone Bikers Profi and Suzuki Austria Team 76 all completed the race without major incident, bringing the number of Suzukis in the top 10 to seven.

Said Phillipe: "It's strange to win the World Championship with a broken hand. It's good that I have ridden in the race; I had a lot of pain but I did five relays so I am happy. I don't think it is possible to be World Champion if I don't ride at every race, so I am very happy."

Team mate Kitagawa added: "First of all I would like to thank the team. I've really enjoyed working with them and the other riders. I'm the first Japanese World Endurance Champion so I'm very pleased. Some of my fans have come over from Japan and they have really helped to motivate me during the race."

Mr Teramoto, Head of Suzuki France said: "One of the most important categories for Suzuki is the sports models so winning World title is very important for us. Today I am very happy on behalf of Suzuki that Suzuki France has won this title, particularly in the 20th anniversary of the GSX-R series."

(this article was distributed by the Suzuki press team and taken from insidebikes.com)