Le Mans 24Hr

[elephino]

Honda took the glory but Suzuki also finished in second place at the 2000 Le
Mans 24-hour race and is confident it can reclaim the world title it won in 1999.

Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) riders Arnaud Van Den Bossche, Christian
Lavielle and Jean Michel Bayle led for much of the early part of the race on their
GSX-R750, setting the fastest pace and opening a gap on the rest of the field.

After an hour of close racing, SERT started to pull away from the rest of the field
and as the race entered the night, had built a comfortable lead on the
opposition. But as the rain started to fall, the organisers were forced to call out
the pace car on several occasions in the interests of safety.

As the night progressed, SERT's three riders were consistently putting in the
fastest laps and continued to pull away from the opposition until the 12th hour
when ex-Grand Prix star and Suzuki rider Bayle suffered a high speed crash and
broke his right arm.

But SERT dug deep and despite losing a full 15-minutes repairing the bike, riders
Van Den Bossche and Lavielle were able to return to the race in fourth position.

Working together, the two Suzuki stars would spend an hour in the saddle before
coming in to rest and they quickly started to catch up on the leaders.

It took SERT just three hours to get up to third position and it wasn't until the
dying moments of the race that the team moved into second position and
secured a strong start to the defence of the world title which it won in 1999.

Suzuki ace Lavielle said: "We wanted to win the race but considering the crash,
the time we lost repairing the bike and the extra pressure on the remaining two
riders, we are really pleased to have finished in second place. This is a good
strong start for the team and we are confident we can reclaim the title Suzuki
won in 1999."