A new circuit on the FIM Endurance World Championship calendar, Slovakia Ring sits a little under 20 miles away from the capital city of Bratislava.
In the run up to this weekend’s 8 Hour Endurance, riders were given plenty of time to learn the new circuit which stands at almost 6 kilometres in length.
After taking 2nd place at both Le Mans and Oschersleben, the Bridgestone supported Yamaha Austria Racing Team were keen to go one better and laid down an early marker by going fastest in qualifying. Another Bridgestone supported squad and championship newcomer, F.C.C TSR Honda also put themselves towards the front of the pack.
High track temperatures were a major concern for the teams on race day, but soon Broc Parkes of YART and fellow Australian Josh Hook of F.C.C TSR Honda found themselves in a two-way dogfight for the lead as they opened up an early lead on the rest of the field.
At the three hour mark engine shutdown issues hampered the Honda squad who lost a lot of time as they worked tirelessly to fix their machine. Sadly this would eventually see them finish well down the order in 21st place.
At the 5 hour mark YART held a 19 second lead over rival factory Yamaha squad GMT94, but when they came into the pits they lost three laps as mechanics worked against the clock to correct a chain adjuster issue.
Between them Parkes, Marvin Fritz and Kohta Nozane pushed to close the gap to the leaders but the chain issue had clearly cost them dearly.
At the end of the 8 Hour race they had worked their way back up to 4th place, but it could have been so much more just a few hours earlier.
Next up it’s Suzuka in July, where teams will be pitted against a number of independent and factory backed local teams who flock to the Japanese circuit in their droves every year. Bridgestone have been involved with the winning team at Suzuka every year for more than a decade.
YART now sit in 3rd place overall in the championsip, and will be looking to claw back some vital points in the finale next month.
Find out more about the Battlax V02 Slick – as used by YART & FCC TSR Honda!
