The 3rd edition of Classic Bol D’Or, as usual, took place in Magny-Cours.
This event is an endurance race for classic bikes that recalls the legend and the myth of the most famous 24h race in the world in his golden age: the Bol D’Or in the 70s.
The Classic event is based on two manches of 2 hours each, one on Saturday evening and one on Sunday afternoon.

The Dutch Laverda Van Dijk Racing Team attended this event for the second time, with two Dutch ex GP and Endurance riders: Henk van der Mark, who raced also last year, and the new Dirk Brand (they raced and won together the 24h of Le Mans in 1984 with a Suzuki). Team manager was Marnix var der Schalk and chef mechanic Gijs van Dijk (who is also bikes’ owner). They brought to Magny-Cours the 180° Triple as last year (when they got 11th) and a new 120° Triple, both prepared by Gijs.

“The new 120° racer gave troubles during the practises”, says Marnix, “so the race was run with last year's 180° racer. We reached 4th place on the starting grid of the 56 teams that qualified for the race. But during the first manche we had troubles when one of those tiny cables in the carburettor broke... It took 13 minutes to find the problem and repair it, so we entered the race again on 44th spot.... Thanks to very fast riding of both riders the Laverda finished 19th in the first manche. The second manche went much better and we finished in 5th spot. In the final standings we reached 7th place, 6 laps behind the winners. So… if the cable would not have broken..... Well, in a 4 hour race you never know what happens and what is possible.... So I think we must go back next year. Henk was extremely fast on the Laverda, the new man Dirk needed time to get used to the bike but gradually he became faster and faster… fantastic!”
“I’m a little disappointed” added Gijs van Dijk, “we lost a lot of time for a stupid problem… but it’s OK, these are races..! We have fast riders and bikes, so lets see what will happen next year. However if there would have been a trophy for best team atmosphere then I am sure we would have won it!”


You can see more about the race here:

http://www.boldorclassic.com/

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