Niccolò Canepa, Karel Hanika and Marvin Fritz return to FIM Endurance World Championship action this weekend as the season concludes with the 6 hours of Most.
Coming off the back of a non-finish after a technical failure ended the team’s Bol d’Or while leading in the 11th hour, the Yamaha Austrian Racing Team are determined to secure a positive result and end their 2021 season on a high this weekend.
Although Most is new for the EWC series, it is a track that YART is familiar with following a strong wildcard in the World Superbike Championship in August. Marvin Fritz and Karel Hanika both demonstrated strong pace with the pair fighting inside the top ten throughout the event despite using different tyres to the usual Bridgestones they use in the Endurance championship. Team-mate Canepa is also familiar with the 4.149km Most circuit after the Italian joined his former IDM Superbike and 2013 Red Bull Rookies champion team-mates for a day of testing earlier this year.
A late addition to the 2021 calendar following Suzuka’s cancellation, Most, located in the northwest of the Czech Republic, was opened in 1983 on the 140-hectare site of a former coal surface mine to host the car and motorcycle races held on various tracks in the city of Most. Featuring 21 corners with nine to the left and 12 to the right with a mix of both high and slow speed turns, the circuit creates a flowing nature that should suit the R1 as proven by PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK’s Toprak Razgatlioglu and Andrea Locatelli who recorded a total of four podium finishes across three races with the Turkish rider standing on the top step twice.
A former lap record holder at Most, Hanika and his team-mates are confident of a strong result after a tough 2021 season sees Mandy Kainz’s team head into the final round tenth in the Endurance World Championship standings. Yamaha leads the manufacturer’s standings with a 48-point advantage.
Moto Ain come into the final round of the series off the back of an incredible podium finish at the Bol d’Or. The VRD IGOL EXPÉRIENCES team are also full of confidence after a top-six finish at Bol d’Or with four other Yamaha outfits filling the final positions inside the top ten.
The 6 hours of Most, originally scheduled to be an eight-hour event, will commence on Thursday 7th October with free practice kicking off at 09:00 local time. The blue riders will get qualifying underway at 12:00 and will run through with two sessions each, ending at 15:40pm before night practice. Friday will see a flurry of track activity for the WTCR before EWC returns on Saturday 9th October with the flag dropping for the 6 hours of Most at 11am local time.
