BIKE (UK)

THE FIVE BIKES THAT MATTER THIS MONTH

Endurance winning GSX-R, electro Norton, CCM, Norvin…

- » For more informatio­n on endurance racing and events go to fimewc.com

This Suzuki has just won the Le Mans 24-hour race by a whacking eight laps. One of the winning riders – you’ve probably never heard of him – explains why it’s so special, and how it’s done…

Gregg Black is the fastest Englishman you’ve never heard of. He won the World Endurance Championsh­ip last year and has just won the Le Mans 24-hour (with Sylvain Guintoli and Kazuki Watanabe), but because he’s spent his life in France we don’t hear much about him. Gregg tells Bike about his factory GSX-R1000, and what it takes to win endurance races…

» This is the best race bike I’ve ever ridden

It’s got full factory Öhlins suspension – the same as they use in WSB – a full factory Yoshimura swingarm with all the factory linkages and factory Brembo brakes. Magneti Marelli electronic­s change the power, delivery, traction control, wheelie control, and engine braking and make the bike a lot easier to set up and a lot easier to ride fast than a standard race bike. The tyres are factory Bridgeston­es from Japan which are a step up from the usual ones.

» Being easy to ride is important

We could set it up to steer faster and be more rigid and it would probably be a bit faster over one lap. But we’ve got to do eight or nine stints of 35 laps so you need the bike to be easy to ride fast. It’s not like doing a qualifying lap where you muscle the bike around and get aggressive. We need to be smooth and still get the lap times.

» There’s no drop-off in speed over 24 hours

This year was slightly different because after ten hours we could relax a bit [when the factory Yamaha in second place dropped a valve and retired], but normally we hold our pace for the whole race – night, hot, cold, whatever. This year, after Yamaha retired, we just set our pace to the second place team, which was in the 1:38s. Until then we’d been doing 1:37.5s, so it felt quite easy.

» There are fast riders, and fast endurance riders

The difference is that endurance riders can hold a lap time from the first to the last – that’s what makes the difference and wins you races. Saying that, in the last four or five years the pace has increased so that now we’re doing lap times for the whole 24 hours that are quicker than in any French national superbike championsh­ip race. It used to be that the top guys could ride at 80-85%, but that’s no longer the case. I now treat Le Mans as eight sprint races of an hour each. We don’t relax much.

» It’s a team sport

I like the fact that it’s a team effort. Obviously it’s still an individual sport when you’re on the bike, but you’ve got to bring it back for your team-mates.

» There are some really slow riders

It’s difficult at the 24 hour races – especially the Bol d’or – because privateer teams come to ride. It’s good they’re there, but a lot of the teams have slow amateur riders who are knackered after four hours. You see them wobbling about all over the track. Sylvain was shocked how some of them could be in completely the wrong place. I worked out that on average I’m overtaking 2.5 people per lap [which equates to 787 overtakes during his nine stints] so you’ve got to be really careful. But also be very fast.

‘Endurance riders hold a lap time from the first to the last – that’s what wins you races’

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 ??  ?? 24-hour racing is now, essentiall­y, a series of sprints
Winning: in endurance racing it’s about the team
24-hour racing is now, essentiall­y, a series of sprints Winning: in endurance racing it’s about the team

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