Extremely challenging conditions marked the opening event of the new FIM EWC Endurance World Championship in Le Mans, France. More than 150 crashes during the race really shook up the standings, with even the favored teams paying the price for the bad weather. Along with them, the Slovak Maco Racing Team also suffered a lot of bad luck, as they entered Le Mans with two teams this time.
Yamaha with starting number 14 competed in the main EWC Superbike category with Christoffer Bergman (Sweden), Michael Gilbert (USA) and Daniel Gonzales (Spain), the second motorcycle with starting number 43 under the banner of BGR Czech Team by Maco fought in the Superstock category with three Czech racers, Ladislav Chmelík, Kamil Holán and Martin Vašulín, who were joined by Aleš Brzin from Slovenia.
After qualifying, team with starting number 14 was 27th at the start, team with number 43 was in 43rd place. Unfortunately, the Maco Racing team’s 20th anniversary participation in Le Mans did not end happily. In the third hour of the race, Gonzales and Gilbert were injured after falls, and therefore team with number 14 had to withdraw from the race. Team with number 43 did not avoid falls either, but in the end, after a fierce battle, it finished the race in 19th place in the Superstock class.
Martin Kuzma, owner of the Maco Racing team:
“Our goal was to finish the race in twelfth place in the EWC and twentieth in the Superstock class. Since the weather forecast for the race promised a wet track, we did not push for the result in qualifying. We set both bikes so that they could ride as well as possible on both dry and wet surfaces, which was the right choice.
The race meant a KO for the team with the number 14 right from the start. Dani started and crashed after a few laps and the rodeo began. After he arrived in the pits, we repaired the bike and continued. Chris took over and Michael went on the track after him. However, he had a serious crash and had to be taken to the medical center. We waited a long time for the bike, which we subsequently repaired, but Dani also had an injured hand and Michael was still in the medical center, so we went on one more ride and waited to see how Michael was doing. However, his injury was serious and he could not It was not possible to ride with just Bergman, so we had to finish the race with
bike number 14.
They continued with only the 43, the bike of the BGR by Maco team. Láďa Chmelík started the race there. After the start, we had a technical problem that we fixed and we started to reduce the loss, which was quite good for the difficult conditions on the track, but a crash came and we had to repair it again, the loss was reduced, another crash and repair, so the strategy changed and the goal was to finish the race. It was literally a fight for survival, which ultimately brought the team 19th place in the Superstock class and thus two points in the world championship ranking.
What can I add, the race was marked by more than 150 crashes in total and both of our teams were part of it. Thank you to both teams for the work done and 100% commitment during this weekend and also thank you to our partners for their many years of support and also thank you to the partners of the BGR team by Maco team for the fact that with their help this project could be implemented at the level of the world championship. “It is important to remember that the 24-hour race is the toughest motorcycle race in the world and luck also plays an important role, which this time was not on our side.”
