The fatality of the race, but also the performance, and a lot of positives to take away from our first 24h race!
For our structure KM99, it was the first jump into the big bath of the world endurance motorcyle championship. Before the start, the equation still had many unknows, despite the hard work of the entire team in the last 16 months.
We can add to that the really hazardous weather which made this edition of the 24h motorcycle of le mans 2023 really complicated for all.
The 24h of le mans has started on Thursday with the qualifications in rather precarious conditions. During this qualifications, Lucas Mahias is fallen, fortunately without gravity. The work of the mechanicians and the riders has paid! On the provisional grid, KM99 takes the 7th place.
During the second qualification of the Friday, still under the rain, the times couldn’t be improved. It’s a magnificent 7th place for the start of our first race of 24H. First objective achieved !
Bastien Mackels took the start of the race. A start that we wanted to be careful. The rider from Sprimont has perfectly done the job that we asked him.
After 3 hours of race, we were on the 4th place with a really good pace of ours three riders. A crash of Bastien with big damages forced us to restart around the 45th place.
Never give up, the knife in the teeth: Our whole team did what it took to make an incredible comeback to the 19th place.
Unfortunately, the crash of Florian Marino, in the middle of the night, dropped us to the 25th place.
At around 7am, the weather conditions, always very difficult, with only 3 degrees and a very high humidity, will end up sabotaging all our efforts. And it’s the talented Lucas Mahias who will be trapped in his turn.
Les dégâts sur la moto étant très importants, le team à décider de ne pas réparer et de fermer le box.
A very intense first race, and despite our retirement, we have already proved our speed and determination to fight at the front for the rest of the season
The KM99 structure still young, there is a lot of work to accomplish. The whole team is really motivated and has proved his potential and perseverance. We are now convinced that we are starting from a solid base.
Let’s meet for the next race the 16th June, by us in Spa-Francorchamps.
