BMW Motorrad Motorsport achieved their first goal of the season by qualifying for the Le Mans 24 hour race. Their 37th place on the grid is better then many of the regular competitors, despite a considerable weight and power disadvantage, and now the whole team are excited about the prospects ahead in what is arguably one of the most gruelling races in the calendar.
The team’s three riders, Rico Penzkofer, Thomas Hinterreiter and Marcus Barth (together with reserve Nate Kern) all did a superb job during practice and qualifying sessions and made sure that BMW’s return to top level racing would start in the best possible way.
Suzuki factory teams dominated qualifying with the number 2 bike of Costes, Dietrich and Neukirchner taking pole position ahead of their team mates Philippe, Da Costa and Lagrive. Third quickest is Gimbert, Checa and Four (Yamaha) with Jerman, Scarnato and Cudlin (Yamaha) fourth.
Marcus Barth (1:45.250)I’m happy and I think the whole team are happy that we’ve qualified for the race. The team have done a lot of superb work in a short time and the bike is now in a pretty good condition. We’ve got a good base set-up and everything is working much better then when we we started in first practice. For me, finishing the race is more important then the actually placing.
Thomas Hinterreiter (1:44.299)I believed we’d qualify for this race, because I really believe in this bike - especially after all the hard work the team have put in. And I must say I’m having fun riding it as well! So far, I’ve had no ‘moment’s or dramas and everything has gone very well since first practice. This is a completely new project for us all and we’ve all done a lot of work in a small time. We’ve spent the time so far getting a good set-up and playing around with the mapping and now I think we’re pretty satisfied with what we’ve achieved so far. Now our objective is to run at a good pace, have no crashes or big problems and finish the race.
Rico Penzkofer (1:45.023)I’m happy that we’ve qualified because we’ve worked so hard over the past few days and found a good base for the bike. We’ve done a lot of work on the chassis and suspension and we’ve made quite big step forward since we started. I’m particularly happy with how we’ve all worked together so well, so quickly and now I hope we can finish this tough race.
Nate Kern (reserve rider)I'm very happy for the team and myself and now the project has started in a positive way, because we are in the race. I only had about 25 laps in total on the bike in practice and qualifying, so to be be less then one and a half seconds slower then the rest of our guys is pretty good I think. I really loved the night qualifying - even though I couldn't always see where I was going! I had a good time in dark and did some really good, consistent fast laps.I'm surprised and happy how the project has come together so quickly and that's a testament to all the hard work that has been done. When you look at the field, you'll see that we've beaten over a third and that's pretty good. My job, as reserve rider, is to take over from a rider if there is a problem or injury. Hopefully that will not happen, but whatever does happen, I'm hoping that we're going to finish the race, because that is our objective.
Bertie Hauser (Director of BMW Motorrad Motorsport)I am so delighted and happy that we’ve qualified, even though I know that we weren’t pushing so hard. it would have been stupid to try and force the pace, when all we wanted to do is make sure we would qualify. We’re in the race and that was our first target, so we’re happy because we’ve achieved this first objective. I can’t believe how hard and well all of our guys have worked, but they’ve been incredibly motivated right from the start - and that motivation has paid off. Our riders have a lot of experience between them and our next objective is to bring the bike back home aftyer twenty-four hours and finish the race.
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