The F.C.C. TSR Honda France demonstrated its potential to fight for victory, but the #5 Honda crashed out and finished 5th in the 8 Hours of Spa Motos after a spectacular comeback.

・Class / FORMULA EWC ・Machine / HONDA CBR1000RR-R Fireblade
・Spa-Francorchamps circuit (Belgium)
・Result / 5th　・Total Time / 08:01:57.915 ・LAP / 196
・TEAM STANDINGS / 10th 26pts
・Blue Rider / Josh Hook ・Red Rider / Alan Techer

The 2nd round of the World Endurance Championship, run over 24 hours last season, took place on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in a new 8-hour format, the same as at Suzuka in Japan.
The 37 teams entered for the event gathered in Belgium on 7 and 8 June for the 8 Hours of Spa Motos 2024.

After retiring from the opening round of the season at the 24 Heures Motos, F.C.C. TSR Honda France was keen to score as many points as possible on the famous Ardennes toboggan track.

There was plenty of satisfaction after qualifying, with a high-performance bike, two fast riders (Mike Di Meglio was absent due to injury last weekend) and a great 2nd place on the grid.

But right from the start, given at 1pm on Saturday June 7 in ideal track conditions, Alan Techer encountered a problem and lost the benefit of the #5 Honda’s excellent qualifying. Although he finished the first lap in the middle of the pack, his extremely fast pace enabled him to move back up to 2nd position after 11 laps. The French rider also grabbed the race lap record at the beginning of the stint and then improved to 2.20.722. Perfectly at ease aboard his Honda CBR 1000RR-R Fireblade, he closed to within 6s of the leading bike.

Josh Hook took to the track for his first stint and began to open up a gap on his pursuer. But after 1h10 of racing, the Australian crashed from 2nd position. He restarted without stopping in the pits and only lost 5 places, moving down to 6th place. He finished his stint with a good pace, but the team decided to bring the bike back into the pits, which took almost 7 minutes to repair.
Back on track in 25th place, Alan Techer began a long comeback, once again setting a very high pace, among the fastest on track.
Just as he was bringing the bike back to 17th, another long stop sent the team back to 25th.

Thanks to the combined efforts of the two riders and the technical team, who never gave up, the #5 Honda was back in the Top 10 after just over 5 hours of racing and crossed the finish line in 5th position, snatched in the final minutes by Alan Techer, who set a new race lap record of 2.20.166.

F.C.C. TSR Honda France therefore leaves Belgium with a total of 26 points and 10th place in the provisional championship standings. The team now looks ahead to the Suzuka 8 Hours, the third round of the 2024 FIM EWC season, which takes place in Japan from July 19-21.

■Josh Hook　- rider
“It was a very frustrating weekend for me because I arrived here very sick and I really wasn’t feeling 100%. But the team did a fantastic job with the bike, which is very competitive. I’m really disappointed with my performance today and I’d like to say a massive congratulation to Alan who rode extremely well and did a great job. He stepped up the pace when we needed it most. Unfortunately, I made a mistake which cost us the race, as the result could have been much better. I’m going to recover and come back in good shape for Suzuka.”

■Alan Techer　- rider
“We had some problems with the crash but we did the job. We had the pace to fight for victory. We showed the potential of the team, the bike and the tyres. I’d like to thank every member of the team who gave us an incredible bike that I really enjoyed riding. We’re taking points for the championship, not as many as expected, but now we’re looking forward to testing the new bike at Suzuka in two weeks.”

Click here for PDF version　→ https://tsrjp.com/press/release/TSR_Press_Release-Eng-20240608.pdf