Kawasaki On Pole For Le Mans 24 Hour
Cycle News Staff | September 19, 2014
Rain at the Le Mans circuit in France today translated into nobody going faster than they did yesterday – thus Team SRC Kawasaki will start tomorrow’s 37th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from pole position.
The French factory Kawasaki team of Gregory LeBlanc, Mathieu Lagrive, Fabien Foret and Nicolas Salchaud will lead the head the grid on the team’s ZX10R based on Thursday’s session. The Kawasaki team (with three riders lapping at an average of 1:37.273) bested the Honda Endurance Racing team of Julien da Costa, Sebastien Gimbert, Freddy Foray and reserve rider Jason O’Halloran by .733 of a second. The Honda team won the Oschersleben 8 Hour earlier in the season and the Kawasaki team is the defending 24 Hours of Le Mans champions.
“It was a shame that we had a rain shower just before qualifying today so I couldn’t improve my time,” da Costa said in a team release. “We were able to try some settings for the rain though so we’re well prepared for the race. Second is good and we’re ready.”
Third on the grid will be the Monster Energy Yamaha (YART) team of Broc Parkes, Michael Laverty and Sheridan Morais with the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) ending up fourth with Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Erwin Nigon.
Yamaha Racing GMT93 goes into tomorrow’s season finale with a 21-point lead in the World Championship and David Checa, Kenny Foray and Matthieu Gines put the team’s R1 fifth on the grid for the race.
The BMW Penz13.com Racing Team that features the lone American in the race, Jason Pridmore, ended up 10th on the grid. Pridmore will be joined on the bike by Sylvain Barrier and Glenn Allerton.
