How did you get into endurance racing? How much has it changed since those early days? 42What makes the GSX-R1000 so suited to endurance? What’s been your career highlight? What makes a championship-winning team? “It’s all about the spirit of the team. The bike and the budget come second to the people in endurance racing. You can have all the money and the very best equipment, but if the team doesn’t work like it needs to, then you will fail. The riders are hugely important, but so too are the rest of the people around them. Most of the people in SERT have been in the team for decades. They’ve seen all the challenges that come about, some of which you could never imagine. You learn from those times and make sure they don’t catch you out again. I’d sooner have one experienced man by my side than three who didn’t know a thing about endurance.”How affordable is endurance racing? Is it hard to find the right riders? “Things have got easier over the years. When I raced, fewer people cared or even knew about the importance of fitness or diet. They just rode bikes and had a good time. Those days are gone and we now need riders who are exceptionally quick, exceptionally fit and exceptionally strong in the head. You can find quick riders very easily, and most contemporary racers are pretty fit if they’re racing at national or world level. But what’s much harder to find is a rider with the right mental approach. We tend to find that people only develop the right attitudes in their late twenties, have a resilience to the pain and tiredness that only endurance can bring, while keeping focused and not making silly mistakes. Finding new riders is not easy, but that’s why we keep hold of the good ones when they come along. We’re proud of how loyal our riders are and we appreciate having them.”“I always liked bikes and wanted to have a go at racing. I was still a schoolboy when I did my first race back in 1969. I had a Triumph Trident and entered it into a special 1000km race at Le Mans. It was a very big thing to do, because of the great distance. It was not easy, but the race was very rewarding. I fell in love with the sport and the unique spirit of the endurance scene and I’ve never looked back.” “You can’t compare the scene back then to what it is now. It was so less professional, with the focus being more on fun. No one had money, big trucks or big budgets and the paddock was much smaller. It was a lot more rustic, which was part of its charm. Compared to today, the scene’s revolutionised, not evolved. The bikes we now race are of another world, being so powerful and hi-tech. People have to take things a lot more seriously. Personally, I look back on those old days with many fond memories. I can’t ride a modern bike, but I still have my old Trident.” “Any kind of racing is expensive. There were only four rounds of EWC in the 2016 championship, but for less than what we spend in a season we could compete comfortably in the French Superbike championship. Endurance racing, when done properly, is far from cheap. You only need to think about the logistics to appreciate the financial requirements of our sport – getting our bikes, team and equipment out to Suzuka in Japan costs a fortune. And then you need to accommodate everyone, pay wages and so on. And don’t get me started on the tyre bill. Endurance racing is not cheap, but for us it is worth it because nothing else brings the same level of enjoyment and satisfaction.” “Basically, the standard road bike is a tough machine, and even after we’ve tuned it, the engine never gives us any problems. We’ve never had an engine blow up on us, which is pretty remarkable considering how long we race the bikes for during a single event. They crash well, too – we can always get them back to the garage to repair if necessary.”“There have been so many great times over the years. We’ve won a lot of world titles, which is always a very special occasion. You can go from feeling as low as possible to the highest feeling of your life. Like in 2013 at Le Mans when our bike developed a water leak. It meant a whole engine change, which took nearly an hour. Losing so much time is unthinkable in endurance, but everyone worked so hard and we managed to salvage precious points that led to us winning the title that season. You never forget times like that.”Dominique Meliand is much more than the team owner and manager of the most successful endurance team in history; he’s a craftsman, committed to a sport that’s steered his life for over 40 years…
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