VOL. 51 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 26, 2014 P33
closing in on him after Ryuichi Ki-
yonari had been forced to retire
from second place with a tech-
nical problem to his Buildbase
BMW.
Bridewell was determined
aboard his Milwaukee Yamaha
and moved ahead of Byrne's
Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki as
they crossed the line after 10
laps. Byrne was ahead when the
red flag came out with rain hitting
the racetrack, but the race was
declared complete after 10 laps –
with Bridewell the winner by just
.005 of a second in what was his
138th race in the series.
The rider from Devizes dedi-
cated the victory to his brother
Ollie who had died in a racing ac-
cident seven years earlier.
"I am feeling so emotional
about this victory and this one is
for my brother Ollie," he said. "It
is fantastic for me to get this first
win because I have been trying
so hard to push throughout my
career with so much effort going
into it."
Hickman, who finished sixth in
the opener on the RAF Reserves
Honda, relished the wet condi-
tions of the second race. He
grabbed the lead on the open-
ing lap from Byrne and was never
headed.
The two other title contenders
had troubles. Kiyonari crashed
out of third place unhurt, while
Josh Brookes crashed out on the
warm-up lap and was unable to
complete the race.
HONDA WINS OSCHERSLEBEN 8 HOUR
T
he Honda Racing team of
Julian Da Costa, Sebastien
Gimbert and Freddy Foray won its
first-ever Endurance World Cham-
pionship victory after leading Sun-
day's Oschersleben 8 Hours race
in Germany from the drop of the
flag to the end of the race.
Da Costa started the race
for the team and claimed the
top spot by the end of the first
lap, during which both SERT
and YART crashed and SRC
Kawasaki pitted with a bike is-
sue. The next few hours passed
without incident and with Honda
Racing holding on to a one-lap
lead ahead of Yamaha Racing
GMT94.
With Gimbert on the bike,
heavy rain began to fall, forcing
all teams to pit early and change
to full wet tires. Foray took over
and remained on board while
many other teams succumbed to
the wet conditions and the safety
car was deployed. An oil spill re-
sulted in the race continuing un-
der these conditions for 45 min-
utes as the track was cleaned,
eventually resuming with just
over an hour remaining.
Having carried out an impres-
sive race strategy to pit just six
times during the eight-hour bat-
tle, Honda Racing held a three-
lap lead as Da Costa headed out
on cut slicks for the final stint. He
held steady on the drying track
to bring home the CBR1000RR
Fireblade SP in first place, se-
curing the team's first-ever EWC
victory. Yamaha Racing GMT94
ended up second with Team Bol-
liger Switzerland third.
PHOTOGRAPHY
COURTESY
OF
HONDA
Freddy Foret
splashes around
Oschersleben
during the
eight-hour
endurance race
in Germany en
route to victory
on the team's
CBR1000RR.
