The final event of this year’s World Endurance Motorcycle Championship, the Bol d’Or 24-hour race, took place at France’s Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet over the weekend. The Slovak team Maco Racing went to the place with the desire to move as high as possible in the overall rating of the series, where it belonged to the 15 th position before this 24 hours race race.
This time same crew: Takeshi Ishizuka (JPN), Christoffer Bergman (SWE) and Martin Choy (BUL) appeared as riders on the Yamaha team motorcycle, Belgian Bram Lambrechts was the substitute rider for this event. After qualifying, the team was 23rd at the start. In the 24-hour race itself, the Maco Racing team managed to progress higher and higher and crossed the finish line in 11th place overall, which in the EWC class ranking meant an excellent
5th place. The Slovak team agter this race moved up seven places in the final ranking of the championship, and for the year 2024 it belongs to the overall 8th place.
Martin Kuzma, team owner:
“The goal of our team for the Bol d’Or race was to save our result in the final ranking of the championship. The entire preparation for the weekend was carried out in this spirit. We have been working on a strategy for the race since the first practice. In qualifying, the weather changed, there was a strong wind, we played it safe and we took the 23rd on standing grid.
Christoffer started the race. Our plan was long stints and saving material. Everything went according to plan until nine o’clock in the morning, and then the racing started from our side and the result check of our EWC class. I like it when we are up in the race overall, but this time we had to prioritize our strategy to save the result for the whole season. And it succeeded, it was the 11 th place at the finish line and the 5th in the EWC category.
I praise the performance of our drivers, because they are the ones who want to race and not to tactic, but it was not possible without that this time. We win together, we lose together, it’s teamwork. Takeshi improved his personal record by half a second after eighteen hours of racing, and also drove a double stint and he was one who finished this race our team. This “little”/ compared to me…/ Japanese guy has a lot of potential.
As always, big thank you also to whole team members for a perfect job.
In the end, it is the 8 th place in the final ranking of the World Championships, we are still waiting to see how it will turn out in the independent ranking. It’s not our best result, but after the crash in Le Mans and not participating in Suzuka, we have to accept it.
I want to thank´s all ours partners and fans for their support and also team manager Denise Gresko for helping us fulfill our dreams.”
