The 28th edition of the 24 Hores de Catalunya de Motociclisme The local team FR Moto, which debuted in the Catalan endurance race in 2019, added a new victory to the list of winners of the event. Good rhythm, few errors and great reaction capacity that resulted in their first overall victory and the second in the Endurance World Championship category. Kawasaki Català Aclam and MPS NrBike took the overall podium.
Daniel González, Jacopo Cretaro, David Sanchís and Pedro Rodríguez are the riders chosen to take on the challenge of writing FR Moto’s name within the elite group of winners of the 24 Hours of Catalonia Motorcycling. After setting the third pole position in a row, the first two hours were a constant battle with Kawasaki Català Aclam, the team from which he succeeded in the position of honor.
In the third hour of the competition, FR Moto took the reins and never let go. Without much fanfare, the only threat for FR Moto came at 3pm, with a 6-minute pit stop that saw it reduce its three-lap lead to 57″. However, first position was not risk in no time.
He Kawasaki Català Aclam, the active team with the most victories (9), was unable to renew the victory, but they did make the comeback of the year. In their 25th outing, the Kawasaki team of Julien Pilot, Gabriel Pons, Johan Nigon and Marcel Brenner led after the start, but problems arose in the second hour.
After their third stop, the team was forced to make a fourth and fifth to fix some issues with the bike’s electronics. Having lost more than 15 minutes, FR Moto trailed by 6 laps. Before seeing the third hour of the race, the Kawasaki Català Aclam it was in 18th place and from there they moved up to fourth position. The fall of Gabriel Pons after 5 o’clock in the afternoon destroyed all his hopes again.
After the necessary repairs, the men from Molins de Rei faced the need to return and, still riding in 24th position, the nine-time champion of the 24 Hours of Catalonia achieved the seemingly impossible, back on the podium , and in second position, a place that was already his before 9 in the morning.
The third overall place and the first in Open Superbike is for MPS NrBike (Nicolas Nowacki, Clement Granzotto, Matthieu Thibault, Stephane Pagani). The French team had a relatively linear career. In third place in timed trials, this position gained the most time. In the early morning, MPS NrBike even saw the provisional silver, fighting with the Bimtrazer Fly team (Joan Zamorano, Oscar San Emeterio, Iker Carracedo, Alex Zuzaya).
The latter was one of the most consistent throughout the race, but as the sun came up the problems came. Their Yamaha was flooded with black smoke forcing them to stop for the pits. Despite being able to solve their problems, the Basque team that took the podium last year had to settle for fifth overall position and third in Open Superbike.
Box 69 Racing Marvea (Marc Guillamet, Felix Rodríguez, Christian Palomares, Marc Miralles) is in a similar situation. The Catalan formation is at stake for the absolute podium, and its fourth position in qualifying on Friday confirmed this. That position was exactly what they occupied at the start of the race, until their driver Félix Rodríguez’s fall at turn 2 changed the course of the race. After 23 minutes of intense work in his garage, the Kawasaki XZ10R 1000 returned to the asphalt, albeit in 30th position.
In the evening, those from Sabadell climbed back into the top 5, showing their recovery capacity and chaining countless laps following the rhythm of the leading teams. In fact, it seems that victory for O-SBK could be theirs. Despite this, before five in the morning they broke the engine and shortly after announcing their retirement, repeated despite their efforts the finish they experienced in the 2022 edition.
The 28th edition of the 24 Hours of Motorcycling of Catalonia had other protagonists in different categories present. The Superstock 1000 division was led by Guiracing Endurance (Moran Guiriec, Rony Schwartz, Baptiste Felgerolles, Jimmy Ollivier); while the Exit team prevailed in the Supersport 600 with Cedric Assouvie, Jerori Basté, Jean Paul Fritze and Mario Litran.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
