2022 Endurance Team World Champion
LONG PLAYERS!
Contested over four rounds and a mammoth one-hundred-and-four hours of racing, the FIM Endurance Team World Championship definitely lives up to its title!
Kicking off with the World-famous 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans in mid-April at the Circuit Bugatti in France, defending champions Yoshimura SERT Motul took victory on a total of eight-hundred-and-forty laps.
Fielding British rider Gino Rea, Australian Joshua Hook and Frenchman Mike Di Meglio, FCC TSR Honda France looked threatening in third, fourteen laps down on the winners after leading at the eight-hour mark before suffering mechanical issues.
The championship chase then moved to Belgium for the 24 Heures de Spa at the start of June.
Marking the return of the championship to the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the first time in twenty-one years, heavy rain for the final five hours ensured a tense end to a thrilling race.
With a clear seven-lap advantage, BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team raced to a debut twenty-four-hour EWC win as Rea put in a heroic last-ditch performance to claim the last step of the podium for his team in front of Yoshimura SERT Motul.
A big crash in the second free practice session at round three – the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan in August – put Rea out, leaving Hook and Di Meglio to bring it home in tenth after brake issues slowed the pair while Team HRC raced to the win.
Heading into the final round – the Bol d’Or – in mid-September, FCC TSR Honda France trailed the reigning champions by twenty-three points with twenty-four hours of racing to go.
The event at the Circuit Paul Ricard was celebrating its centenary this year and FCC TSR Honda France – with Alan Techer replacing Rea – received an unexpected present when Yoshimura SERT Motul went out with an engine problem which handed them the title with a fourth-placed finish.
PALMARES
FIM Endurance Team World Champions: 2017/2018, 2022
Past Editions
2018 FIM ENDURANCE TEAM WORLD CHAMPION
Team Manager: Masakazu Fujii (JPN)
Riders: Freddy Foray, Alan Techer, Josh Hook
F.C.C. TSR Honda France (Freddy Foray, Alan Techer and Josh Hook) became the first Japanese team to claim the FIM Endurance World Championship title in the history of the series, after a dramatic final-round decider at the world-famous Suzuka 8 Hour. In a race won for the fourth successive year by the Yamaha Factory Racing Team, the jubilant Japanese crowd had double cause for celebration as the two French riders and the Australian took Masakazu Fujii’s team to the title with fifth place.
Fujii headed up a new alliance for 2017-18 between the vastly experienced Honda France and Team FCC TSR, one of the great Japanese endurance specialists, with the aim of strengthening Honda’s presence at the highest level of the discipline. Fujii united existing TSR team members and Honda France employees with technicians from the Spanish structure Bruno Performance to create the perfect blend both on the track and in the garage.
Riding a CBR1000RR Fireblade prepared at the TSR workshops in Suzuka, Foray, Techer and Hook made a promising start to the season as they led the Bol d’Or last September, even though they crashed and finished sixth, as defending champions GMT94 Yamaha (David Checa, Niccolò Canepa and Mike Di Meglio) claimed the win.
However, the trio made history next time out at Le Mans, making F.C.C. TSR Honda France the first Japanese team ever to win the 24 Heures Motos – also Honda’s first win there since 2006 - and shot to the top of the standings. They hung on by a single point after taking third behind YART Yamaha and GMT94 Yamaha at Slovakiaring, but extended their lead to ten points with a second victory from pole position at Oschersleben. Fifth place in that grand finale at Suzuka, combined with sixth for GMT94 Yamaha, was enough to secure a historic title by thirteen points.