Huge news for the FIM Endurance World Championship, as two legendary teams have come together ahead of the 2021 season with sights firmly set on the title!
The Japanese Yoshimura squad have come together with French outfit Suzuki Endurance Racing Team to form Yoshimura SERT Motul, and they’ll be racing on Bridgestone tyres too!
Yoshimura Racing Team boast four wins and several podium finishes at the prostigious Suzuka 8 Hours, while SERT have enjoyed great success in the championship over the past 40 years, recently claiming their 16th FIM EWC title.
Yoshimura have already acted as a technical partner to the SERT team for a number of years, and this relationship has become stronger since Damien Saulnier became team manager.
Damien Saulnier, Team Manager of Yoshimura SERT Motul commented:
“July 2019 marked the start of a fresh chapter in SERT’s history with the Boss retiring. Following the handover, Suzuki, Yoshimura and SERT partnered up to develop endurance bikes for the FIM EWC.
Over the years, Yoshimura has always worked on getting the GSXR bikes to perform even better. That continues to be the main focus for Yohei Kato, our point of contact at Yoshimura and a direct descendant of ‘Pop’ Yoshimura. So it makes total sense for us to now link up with this iconic performance tuning specialist. Having our efforts crowned with success in the shape of a 16th world title is an achievement for the entire team, bearing out the close working relationship, both past and future, between our two entities. Today, we are proud to present the new colours of the bike and our logo combining Yoshimura, SERT and Motul to officially announce SERT’s partnership with Yoshimura.”
For Bridgestone the championship serves as a proving ground for the continuous development of their popular Battlax V02 range of racing slicks, which have already guided Yamaha Austria to several race wins, and FCC TSR Honda to the championship in 2019.
These developments include the introduction of their latest 3-Layer Compound rear V02 slick tyres, which are already available to UK racers in soft-medium alongside the standard options in 200/655 R17.
With three top teams all gunning for the title next year, it’s already looking like another promising season for the Japanese tyre maker.
