Louis Rossi stood atop a soaking wet podium after the Moto3 race at the French Grand Prix in 2012, leading the crowd in an enthusiastic rendition of the country's national anthem La Marseillaise. It was the first time the experienced grand prix racer ever stood on a GP podium, the first time he ever won a GP. It was also the last time he stood on a GP podium, at least to date.
But Rossi is only a supporting cast member in this story. He is one of the elements that came together in a chaotic and thoroughly unpredictable manner to make Lucas Mahias the 2016 FIM Endurance World Champion. And the story of Rossi, Mahias and the 2016 EWC championship chase spectacularly illustrates why endurance racing does one thing better than any other discipline of racing - and that is create a story. Starting with Rossi: Sadly, the Moto3 win did not kick off a string of wins for the Frenchman. He became a journeyman racer, bouncing from team to team in Moto2, scoring fewer than half the points in the three seasons from 2013-2015 than he did in the single 2012 season in Moto3.
For 2016, Rossi landed a ride with the GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team. The French-based squad was EWC runner-up in 2015, and has multiple world championships, race wins and podiums to its name. The ride must have felt like coming home for Rossi, a chance to compete at the front of the pack again. Riding a competitive bike for a competitive team does good things for a rider's head and his/her heart. The EWC season even started with a 24-hour race at Le Mans, the circuit where Rossi scored that GP win. Rossi must have felt that after years in the wilderness, everything for him had finally come together.
It all fell apart before that race was over.
Rossi crashed not once, not twice, but three times. GMT94 retired from the race - the decision of absolutely last resort for a front-line endurance team. "My mistake was to try to impose a wholesale rate, while this time the track conditions allowed only not. But racing is like that - when we seek performance, (a) fall is not very far ..." Rossi said after the race.
His team was not as philosophical about Rossi's disastrous performance, but at least it was as gracious as it could be as it fired him:
“We all got it a bit wrong, Louis and us,” William Costes, GMT94 Yamaha’s sport director, said. “Louis wasn’t psychologically prepared for endurance racing. A good endurance rider has to have a fine ear for the tires, the bike and the track in changing race conditions. Louis still has a speed championship mindset, where you have to go fast at all costs. At Le Mans, the brief was simple: make as few mistakes as possible, and make it to the finish. Louis was under a lot of pressure at Le Mans. He was undoubtedly trying too hard, wanting to prove that, coming from the GP, he could adapt to the endurance bike very quickly. Niccolò Canepa adapted very well, but Louis didn’t manage it. Maybe I didn’t guide him properly."
Meanwhile, the modestly-funded Team R2CL's three-year-old Suzuki GSX-R1000 had nailed down fourth place at the 24 Heures Motos. And a rider named Lucas Mahias had posted the fastest lap of the race on that aged Suzuki. Mahias had ridden in the past for GMT94 Yamaha, but wasn't planning to do so in 2016, as he had plans to race the Supersport World Championship. But after the Le Mans race, when GMT94 came calling again, Mahias said yes.
“Many teams have been keeping a very close eye on him," Christophe Guyot, team manager of GMT94 Yamaha, said. "Lucas is a quick rider who knows and loves endurance racing, as he has just proved at Le Mans. Over the past few months, Lucas has done what it takes to be a factory rider. He adapts to everything, and he’s very motivated.”The GMT94 team with Mahias on board won the 12-hour race at Portimao in Portugal. A week later, Mahias made his PATA Yamaha Official STK1000 Team Superstock 1000 World Championship debut. Mahias was sitting in third on the STK1000-spec YZF-R1 at Misano on the final lap when the leaders collided and Mahias took the victory. "When I saw the leaders in the gravel I suddenly thought, 'Oh my god I am going to win'!" he said.
GMT94 finished 14th overall, but crucially fourth among the permanent EWC teams, at the Suzuka 8 Hours. And when the YART Yamaha Official EWC team faltered, GMT94 ran down the leaders and pulled to a 21-second margin at the end of the 8 Hours of Oschersleben.
The win wasn't enough. GMT94 lost the Team FIM EWC Championship by a single point.
But because Mahias had finished so high at Le Mans, compared to his GMT94 teammates, the win at Oschersleben sealed the Riders FIM EWC Championship for him by a huge margin. Mahias wound up with 123 points, while his closest competitors had 88. The rider who had no factory ride at the beginning of the season wound up World Champion. And endurance racing once again proved its ability to deliver drama like no other form of motorsport.
