Wójcik Racing Team — the squad we support on the technical side — is back on a motorcycle world championship podium. The Polish outfit took third place in the Superstock class at the demanding eight-hour Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan. It is their second podium of this year's FIM EWC season.
The trio of Jordi Torres, Oscar Gutierrez and Gabriele Giannini, riding a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade, started the Japanese round from seventh in class and, despite difficult wet conditions, worked their way into the top three. Grzegorz Wójcik's crew eventually crossed the line third, right behind the leading two. A safety-car period took away the number 77 team's shot at fighting for the win, but with their second podium of the year the team moved up to second in the overall standings.
"It's an incredible day for us," says Grzegorz Wójcik. "Racing the Suzuka 8 Hours had been our dream for years. This year we not only started here for the fifth time, we were also able to fight for the win and reach the podium in very difficult conditions. That's down to the tremendous work of the whole team, from the riders to the mechanics and everyone who helped us even before we flew out of Poland. Ahead of us is the big finale, where we want to fight not just for another podium, but for the title as well."
The team's racing weekend was much longer than the Japanese round, though. At Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, Mateusz Molik #7 scored his first points in only his third European Stock Championship start, having qualified inside the top 10 — and in June he stood on the FIM EWC podium alongside Torres and Gutierrez at Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps. Meanwhile, at the Slovakiaring in Slovakia, WRT riders were untouchable in round three of the Polish WMMP championship: Artur Wielebski #16 and Wiktor Majchrowski won twice there, and the team's juniors — Kacper Wójcik and Bartosz Bambecki — won four times. The crew brought 10 trophies home.
The fourth and final round of the FIM EWC World Championship takes place in mid-September at Paul Ricard, where the season traditionally closes with the 24-hour Bol d'Or. The experience from the track comes back with us to the Soshi Moto workshop in Kielce — where we service and prepare motorcycles every day. Congratulations to the whole team, and we're keeping our fingers crossed for the big finale! Information sourced from the official Wójcik Racing Team Facebook page.
