Maco Racing Team – 24 hours Le Mans endurance event, the penultimate road motorcycle world championship was held as a 24-hour race on the famous French circuit of Le Mans. The ambition of the Slovak team Maco Racing was to obtain the most points in the championship, whilst achieving the best possible result for this race.
Riders Jason Pridmore, Greg Junod, and Gregg Black rode well right from the first practice session and showed that the team was ready for the challenge. The three riders achieved an overall qualifying position of 5th place, but due to a mistake by the organisers the team were to start from 6th place. The Commissioner who was in charge of time keeping omitted to hold out the chequered flag at the end of the qualifying session and our rider‘s last and quickest lap time was not allowed. The jury, incorrectly adjusted the final qualifying position and the Slovak team fell from 5th place on the starting grid to 6th place.
After starting, Junod was riding in an excellent fourth place, but after a few laps had to return to the pit box due to problems with the brakes. After replacing the brake system, and rejoining the race Junod had to return once again to the box with the same problem. This was not resolved until the next stop when it was discovered there was a problem with low quality brake fluid. The Slovak team finally rejoined the race in 54th place.
After a long and hard fought battle Maco Racing Team managed to finish the race in 18th place in the general classification and 9th place in their specific class giving the team a well earned ten points towards the championship.
This places Maco Racing Team in 11th position in the World Endurance Championship.
The final round of this championship, which will be an 8 hour race, will be held on the 12th November at Qatar, Losail circuit.
Martin Kuzma, owner of the team:
“The result was not what we had hoped for as our riders where showing great times during qualifying and we had high hopes for the race. Unfortunately due to the problem with the brake fluid we were unable to achieve the result we had hoped for. I am sorry that this happened but sometimes in racing fortunes go this way. Due to this problem we experienced frustration in the team, but with increasing time we saw that our efforts may be rewarded with a score and we became re-motivated. With ten points scored at Le Mans we move into 11th place in the World Championship. In Qatar we will aim to improve this place and finish in the top 10 of the final World Championship classification. In Le Mans, we again demonstrated our potential and strength, as appreciated by our partners, and my thanks to the riders and the whole team, who all worked at 110 percent.”
