Forty-four teams took part in the second day of free tests starting at 09:00 this morning. They enjoyed ideal track conditions to fine-tune the setups of their bikes before competing in official practice on Thursday 13th April. Several neutralisations disrupted the final day but none was serious enough to compromise the participation of teams or riders in the 40th 24 Heures Motos.
Not satisfied with shattering the pole position time for the 2016 24 Heures Motos yesterday, the YART Yamaha again drove home its superiority by setting the new benchmark time of 1m36.866sec. It was also proof of the performance and the robustness of the Bridgestone tyres on the new surface of the Bugatti circuit. The no.9 BMW entered by Tecmas-BMW finished 6/10th of a second behind and the no. 11 Kawasaki of the Team SRC was fourth 7/10th of a second in arrears. In the GMT94 squad David Checa, Niccolò Canepa and Mike Di Meglio buckled down to the task of improving the race setups on their Yamaha R1. The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team’s test programme was upset by the fall of one of their three riders, luckily without consequences. The Honda Endurance Racing finished the day in ninth place as Sébastien Gimbert, Julien Da Costa and Freddy Foray continued developing the Honda CB R1000 RR SP.
Although the no. 333 Yamaha entered by Yamaha Viltaïs Experience dominated the Superstock category, the R1 run by Team LMD 63-Ultimate Cup seems to have a good chance of winning in what again promises to be a no-holds-barred battle for victory in this category.
The Pré-Mans tests are now over and the 60 runners entered for the 24 Heures Motos will be back at the Bugatti circuit on Wednesday 12th April for scrutineering and administrative checks. The first official practice sessions will be held on Thursday 13th April.
Tickets
Pre-sales end on Sunday!
To be a part of the great motorbike festival no time to lose. You still have four days to take advantage of the pre-sales tariff! Until 2nd April the price of general enclosure tickets is 55 € instead of 68 € after this date. And only 51 € for ACO members.