2022 Bol d’Or Results

Press Release | September 19, 2022

Viltais Racing Igol wins Bol d’Or; F.C.C. TSR Honda France Takes 2022 FIM EWC Championship

The following includes excerpts from a race report from FIM EWC…

Viltais Racing Igol won big by winning the 100th-anniversary Bol d’Or, but F.C.C. TSR Honda France won bigger still by claiming FIM Endurance World Championship glory after 24 arduous hours of racing at Circuit Paul Ricard on Sunday, September 18, 2022.

F.C.C. TSR Honda France’s title success followed a race of high drama and high attrition in the Southern French sunshine and comes at the completion of another action-packed EWC season, which also featured 24-hour races at Le Mans and Spa-Francorchamps, plus a return to Japan for the Suzuka 8 Hours.

In front of packed grandstands, Viltais Racing Igol’s maiden EWC victory was dramatic and somewhat unexpected in equal measure but was nevertheless fitting reward for Team Manager Yannick Lucot’s tireless efforts behind the scenes, an impressive display from riding trio Florian Alt (Germany), Erwan Nigon (France) and Steven Odendaal (South Africa), plus important contributions from reserve rider James Westmoreland (Great Britain).

“This race has been incredible,” said Steven Odendaal of the Viltais Racing Igol team. “To be in a French team winning on French soil is just something amazing. Yannick Lucot, my team boss, had a really big dream of this day and my team-mates and I, we fulfilled this so we’re really, really happy with this victory. Obviously we did not expect this, we just knew we had to make everything the maximum and we just did this and finally we’ve got this big trophy, which is amazing, and I’m really happy to walk away with my first EWC podium being a victory.”

Viltais Racing Igol’s Bol d’Or victory meant the four race wins up for grabs in the 2022 EWC were claimed by four different teams, such has been the wide-open nature of the championship this season. And to underline its competitiveness both the EWC qualifying and race lap records at Circuit Paul Ricard were broken by Illya Mykhalchyk (1m51.641s) and Xavi Forés (1m52.979s) respectively.

Late Bol d’Or heartbreak for ERC Endurance-Ducati

Up until the final 90 minutes of the Bol d’Or, long-term leader ERC Endurance-Ducati was seemingly on course for victory only to stop with a mechanical failure while comfortably in front. That left Wójcik Racing Team at the head of the pack. But in another late twist, the Polish squad’s Yamaha slowed, forcing Mathieu Gines to push the bike to the pitlane for repairs.

When Dan Linfoot eventually returned the #77 machine to the track, more than five minutes had been lost along with hopes of victory for Gines, Linfoot and Sheridan Morais as France-based Viltais Racing Igol, another Yamaha privateer, swept into a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Meanwhile, Wójcik Racing Team’s eventual second place represented its best finish of the season with Webike SRC Kawasaki France third in what was Gilles Stafler’s final EWC race as team boss before he retires. Webike SRC Kawasaki France had also failed to land a podium in 2022 prior to the Bol d’Or and actually led for a time before dropping back with an engine wiring issue ahead of its charging comeback.

For ERC Endurance-Ducati riders David Checa and Xavi Forés, their late heartbreak was hard to take after they’d shared riding duties for a large part of the race when Chaz Davies hurt his back and couldn’t continue. Despite the highly emotional scenes in the team garage as a near-certain victory slipped away, Checa regained his composure to return to the action for the last hour following rapid repairs by his German outfit. He took fifth behind the F.C.C. TSR Honda France team, which also made another unscheduled pitstop in the closing two hours having been delayed earlier in the race.

MACO Racing finished a strong sixth, Team Bolliger Switzerland was the next best Formula EWC squad in ninth overall despite Nico Thoni crashing two corners into the race. Team LRP Poland finished two places further back, while Motobox Kremer Racing was next up in the headlining category followed by Japanese newcomer TONE RT Syncedge 4413 BMW.

TATI Team Beringer Racing was leading and in contention for the EWC title when it stopped with a technical issue on Sunday morning, much to the disappointment of the French team and its riders Leon Haslam, Grégory Leblanc and Bastien Mackels.

F.C.C. TSR Honda France Becomes 2022 FIM EWC World Champion

For F.C.C. TSR Honda France, its FIM Endurance World Championship title success follows on from the 2017-18 season when Josh Hook was partnered by Freddy Foray and Alan Techer to the EWC’s top prize. The Japanese squad was one of five outfits in a firm fight for glory starting the Bol d’Or but prevailed as its four rivals hit trouble. All-season riders Mike Di Meglio and Hook were joined on the #5 Honda for the final event of the year by Alan Techer in place of Gino Rea, who suffered serious head injuries in a crash at Suzuka last month but helped F.C.C. TSR Honda France to podiums in the 24 Heures Motos and the 24H Spa EWC Motos earlier in the campaign.

“I know from the past never to think the race is over until the checkered flag,” said F.C.C. TSR Honda France’s Josh Hook. “We’ve come back from much worse situations and won races in the past. We did run into some dramas as everyone else did it seems. We never gave up on it and just kept chipping away. We did a lot of really good race runs all throughout the night and we were consistently fast all three of us. Basically we were going to see where we were at when the sun came up in the morning but we never counted the win out at all. But it came to a point in time when we had to toss up whether we focused on the championship, which is obviously our main objective, or the race win. We decided to take care of the engine after getting a little nervous and seeing everyone else’s bikes blowing up and there wasn’t many left in the end. We tried to be as conservative as possible and just bring home the championship for our team, Honda and all our partners.”

Defending champion Yoshimura SERT Motul placed second in the final championship order with Viltais Racing Igol third.

While F.C.C. TSR Honda France celebrated, there was Bol d’Or heartache for several teams, including three EWC title contenders, BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team, which qualified on pole, YART – Yamaha Official Team EWC and Yoshimura SERT Motul. Team Moto Ain also failed to finish through technical issues having impressed with fifth fastest in qualifying.

2022 Bol d’Or Superstock

RAC41-Chromeburner claimed Superstock category honors ahead of BMRT 3D Maxxess Nevers in a reversal of last season’s finishing positions with Pitlane Endurance taking third place. In addition to team regulars Chris Leesch and Wayne Tessels, RAC41-Chromeburner recruited Jonathan Hardt for the final round.

The Frenchman was part of the BMRT 3D Maxxess Nevers team that took top Bol d’Or Superstock honours in 2021 and his inclusion appeared to make the difference to the squad, which overcame a late scare when its Honda’s exhaust failed.

“For us, it was a really good race,” said RAC41-Chromeburner’s Wayne Tessels. “The second part was quite difficult for me personally, but I was very happy that the bike worked well and also my colleagues Jonathan [Hardt] and Chris [Leesch] did a hell of a job, a really good job. I’m also really happy we took this win because at Le Mans Grégory Fastre, our team-mate, had an injury, which was pretty bad, and it’s also for him that we finally won and I’m happy to be on the podium here.”

No Limits Motor Team, Falcon Racing, Énergie Endurance, JMA Racing Action Bike, Team 33 Louit April Moto, ADSS 97, Team Aviobike, Team 202 and TRT 27 Bazar 2 La Bécane all finished but there was disappointment for Team LH Racing, National Motos Honda and 3ART Best of Bike.

OG Motorsport by Sarazin led until Alex Plancassagne crashed just before 02h50 to bring out the safety car while trackside barriers were repaired, while late mechanical issues denied Wójcik Racing Team’s pole-setting Superstock squad a class podium nearing the finish.

FIM Endurance World Cup

Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers CMS Motostore took the FIM Endurance World Cup title despite dropping out of contention with a mechanical failure, which took several hours to rectify.

However, the Superstock win at Le Mans and a second place at Spa-Francorchamps were enough to secure the title for the Yamaha-powered team, which counted on riders Baptiste Guittet and Hugo Clere from France plus Austrian Philipp Steinmayr.

2022 Bol d’Or Race Results

Pos.	No.	Team	Bike	Laps	Total Time
1	333	Viltais Racing Igol	Yamaha	718	01:13.7
2	77	Wójcik Racing Team EWC 77	Yamaha	717	05:00.2
3	11	Webike SRC Kawasaki France	Kawasaki	716	02:26.2
4	5	F.C.C. TSR Honda France	Honda	714	01:16.3
5	6	ERC Endurance Ducati	Ducati	706	01:15.0
6	14	MACO Racing Team	Yamaha	704	01:17.8
7	41	RAC41-Chromeburner	Honda	704	02:57.9
8	24	BMRT 3D Maxxess Nevers	Kawasaki	702	01:17.2
9	8	Team Bolliger Swnzerland #8	Kawasaki	702	01:49.5
10	86	Pitlane Endurance #86 -JP3	Yamaha	698	03:19.3

2022 FIM Endurance World Championship Team Results

F.C.C. TSR Honda France
Yoshimura SERT Motul
Viltais Racing Igol
TATI Team Beringer Racing
Wójcik Racing Team EWC 77
YART – Yamaha Official Team EWC
Team Bolliger Switzerland #8
Webike SRC Kawasaki France
ERC Endurance Ducati
Team LRP Poland