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The Doha 8 Hour race has been for the Team Amadeus X-One the classic confirmation of Murphy’s Law: when something could run wrong you could be sure that it will happen.
After the heavy crash of Paolo Tessari during the Friday’s final practices a bit of confidence was returning in the team, following the warm up of Saturday morning, not only for the quick laptime but most of all for the good pace recorded by Alessandro Polita and Willy Gruy, while “Tex” Tessari remained as reserve, ready to replace his teammates if tired or for every need.
Despite the engine tuned for the race was badly damaged after Tessari’s fall, with the machine completely destroyed, Polita and Gruy started quickly a fantastic catching up that bring them in sixth position during the fourth hour of race, recording also the seventh fastest laptime of the race.
But at that point the Murphy’s Law hit: at the early stage of seventh hour of race, when Alex Polita was riding, the Yamaha R1 engine died all at once and the Italian rider could only sadly rejoined the pit and withdraw from the race..
The race has been won by the fresh World Champions Yamaha Austria Racing Team before Yamaha Phase One Endurance and Kawasaki Bolliger; following this not finish the team Amadeus X-One ended the 2009 World Endurance Championship in ninth position.
Maurizio Bargiacchi, team manager of the Italian team, doesn’t hide his disappointment: “That’s been a race badly born and finished at the worst. The Tessari’s accident did unsettle all our strategies: Tex has been in practice out and we lost the best engine, broken into a pile of scraps with the whole machine. Despite the full standard engine that we’ve been forced to use Alex and Willy have been fantastic, but unfortunately after seventh hours of race the engine did breath one’s last and we have been forced to hoist the white flag. We finished the championship in ninth position, a bit far from the goal we could reach without misfortune interference. We want to make our most sincere congratulations to Yamaha Austria R.T. for the title that they awarded with full merit. I have just to thank the riders and all the team crew for the faultless commitment they show during all the season, and going to start briskly working for 2010 season.”
Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship – Final standing
1 Yamaha Austria Racing Team 145 points
2 Sapeurs Pompiers Suzuki 73
3 Bolliger Switzerland Kawasaki 71
4 RT Racing Team Vyrus Suzuki 70
5 SERT Suzuki 67
...
9 Team Amadeus X-One Yamaha 40
(thanks to Paolo Tessari, Willy Gruy, Ayrton Badovini, Anthony dos Santos and Alessandro Polita)
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