Following its impressive top ten finish at the legendary Suzuka 8-hour last week, the Honda TT Legends team will this week travel to Germany for the penultimate round of the 2012 World Endurance Championship – the Oschersleben 8-hour.
The Honda TT Legends have completed every race so far this year with impressively solid performances that have placed the team second overall in the EWC standings, just five points behind championship leaders SERT. The Oschersleben race presents a pivotal stage in the season as the top teams battle it out for all-important points in the fight for the title crown.
Honda TT Legends’ John McGuinness and Cameron Donald will be joined once again by Samsung Honda British Superstock star Jason O’Halloran, who is standing-in for injured regular rider Simon Andrews. Both McGuinness and O’Halloran took part in a test at the 3.7km German circuit just last month and the whole team is feeling confident ahead of this weekend’s eight-hour encounter.
Neil Tuxworth – team manager
For the Oschersleben race we will once again replace Simon Andrews with Jason O’Halloran as Simon continues to recover from his Isle of Man TT crash. We will therefore be running the same rider line-up in Germany that we ran in Japan. All three riders have proved their confidence in endurance racing and we will be looking to bring home a successful result in Oschersleben to at least maintain second position in the EWC standings. We had a successful test at the circuit a few weeks ago, so we are already ahead of the game in terms of familiarisation and set-up, so let’s see what the weekend brings.
John McGuinness
After Suzuka we’re in a really good position going to Germany and this round is going to be an important one for everyone. We’ll all be after the points and although we’ve done a great job so far, we can’t get too comfortable. It’s a new track for us in terms of the race, but we have tested here so that gives us a good start. The bike has been working like a dream and the crew are as good as ever so I’m confident that we can do a solid job and maintain our position ahead of Le Mans.
Cameron Donald
Life is a racing whirlwind at the moment, with Japan one week and Europe the next! After a strong result in the tough conditions of Suzuka I’m looking forward to building on that bike time at Oschersleben this week. The team is working well and we all want the same result from this next round of the championship and I can’t wait to get going as we keep pushing to improve our championship position. This will be the first time racing at Oschersleben for John, Jason and myself so that always adds some extra excitement. After seeing how well the lads rode last week I know I have two of the best team mates I could ask for. Bring it on!
Jason O’Halloran
I’m really looking forward to this race. I’ve worked with the team twice now so it’s all feeling a bit more familiar to me. We tested here a few weeks back too so I’m going into this one a step ahead, unlike Qatar, which was a brand new track for me, and Suzuka, which I hadn’t ridden for a few years. The team is only a few points off the championship leaders so I think we’re all looking forward to seeing if we can close that gap a little before the team heads to Le Mans for the final round.
The Oschersleben 8-hour race will take place as part of the 15th German Speedweek – a week-long motorcycling festival at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The race still begin at 14.00 (CET)on Saturday 11 August.
