Pridmore Starts World Endurance Season
Cycle News Staff | April 14, 2011
Jason Pridmore’s Maco Racing Team qualified seventh for the season-opening Bol d’Or round of the World Endurance Championship at the Magny-Cours circuit in France.Pridmore, the only American in the series, and teammates Gregory Junod, of Switzerland, and Gregg Black, of France, qualified their Yamaha R1 at an average time of 1:42.957 mins. The lap time is determined by combining each of the three riders’ single best lap times and dividing by three.The provisional pole went to the SRC Kawasaki team of Frenchmen Julien da Costa, Greg LeBlanc, and Olivier Four in a very closely fought qualifying session. Da Costa had the single fastest lap of qualifying, a 1:40.048, and the team’s average was 1:40.938 mins. Their average time was a scant .013 sec. faster than the the second fastest BMW Motorrad France 99 team of Sebastian Gimbert, Damian Cudlin, and Erwan Nigon. The BMW team had been fastest in free practice.The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team-Vincent Phillipe Freddy Foray, and Andre Delhalle-was only .020 sec. slower on combined average time than the BMW in third place, making the provisional front row covered by .033 sec. Philippe had the second best individual lap time of 1:40.098.