Aside from MotoGP, World Superbike and of course the Bennetts British Superbike series, there is yet another formula of motorcycle racing that is definitely not for the fainthearted, and that series is the gladiatorial arena of Motorcycle World Endurance racing.
If Endurance was a music genre it would be hardcore metal, riders have to be supremely fit, ultra-quick, focused, willing to take a battering, and still pick themselves up of the deck and remount, or even in the event of a daytime or nocturnal smash make a valiant push back into to the paddock pit lane to hand over to the team to make repairs.
All of this takes in a full 8 or24-hour race, on World Superbike or Superstock spec machinery with a glittering array of Grand Prix and Superbike stars from Jonny Rea, Bradley Smith, Tommy Bridewell and Leon Haslam still fronting up for one off events like Suzuka. Riders from all over the globe are all ready and willing and able to take up this as the ultimate biking challenge which has a huge following in mainland Europe.
From dusk till dawn these motorcycling Vampyres race, eat and sleep in this surreal motorcycling arena, goaded on by thousands of twenty-four-hour party people race fans who are as much a part of the high-octane carnival as the racers themselves.
2019 Season.
The provisional entry list of 60 competitors for the 2019 24 Heures Motos has been released. The 39 full-season FIM EWC participants make up the bulk of the squads entering the fray on the Bugatti circuit at Le Mans on 20 and 21 April.
The countdown to the 42nd edition of the 24 Heures Motos has begun with the provisional entry list released at a press conference at Eurosport’s offices in the Paris region in the presence of Pierre Fillon, President of ACO, the race organizer; Jacques Bolle, FIM Vice-President and FFM President, and François Ribeiro, Head of Eurosport Events.
The 39 teams taking part in the full season of the 2018-2019 FIM EWC make up the bulk of the field at the 2019 24 Heures Motos. The championship’s international appeal has grown, with 60 teams representing 12 countries, and 19 rider nationalities to date.