After making a return to premier class motorcycle racing last year, Bridgestone have claimed their first win after a nail biting 24 hours of action at Le Mans.
Bridgestone supported Yamaha Austria looked to be the team to beat during qualifying and the early stages of the day-long race, until Marvin Fritz went down hard at Turn One leaving them with some serious repair work to be done.
The bike was eventually repaired, but soon it was apparent that they wouldn’t score points, so a decision was made to pull out and re-group ahead of the Slovakia Ring round in three weeks time.
As the teams headed into the final third of the race, FCC TSR Honda were looking strong in second place with their trio of riders Freddy Foray, Alan Techer and Josh Hook.
With five hours to go, the Honda had hit the front as more than 76,000 fans looked on from the sidelines.
Eventually the team crossed the line in first place ahead of Honda Endurance Racing and Penz13 BMW, becoming the first Japanese team to win the 24 Heures Motos and shooting to the top of the FIM Endurance World Championship standings.
The FCC TSR Honda team were using Bridgestone’s acclaimed Battlax V02 Racing Slick, an off-the-shelf product available to ordinary members of the public via their local Bridgestone dealer.
The three-time Suzuka 8 Hour race winners will be looking for a repeat performance in Slovakia next month, as they hope to claim this year’s FIM EWC title.
Find out more about the Bridgestone race range here.
