FFS, there has been so many "small" crashes by amateur teams... It's insane, every 3-5 minutes someone is dropping their sportbike. Leader has completed 100 laps just now, 41st-59th have not reached 90 laps. The weather is somewhat warm and I guess that's creating a slippery surface, making crashes rather common.

POSSIBLE DRAMA - Race leader Honda #111 is riding around with its lights off.
In FIM EWC rounds, sportbikes must have their lights on at all times. If they turn off during daytime, you don't have to come in right away but, once you enter pitlane, you can't exit until the lights work. During nighttime, you must enter pitlane within 3 laps (it's like a black flag in F1 or MotoGp).

Honda Endurance team has already prepared a new front end for the bike. I guess they'll just change the full fairing and plug everything in. If that doesn't solve it, they might lose the lead entirely.

OMFG!!! THEY'RE PULLING THE HONDA #111 INTO THE GARAGE!!! Kawasaki #11 now leads the race.
The Honda #111 has been one of the fastest bikes and the most fuel-efficient one for years... but shit always seems to fuck them. I've seen them run out of fuel unexpectedly, have several electronic issues. Shit just happens to them!

Honda #111 has lost almost 5 minutes (almost 3 laps) with this but they're back out. It's a sportbike endurance race so anything can happen to anyone but this must've hurt them badly.

Back on the saddle (had some shit to do), top6 hasn't changed much during the past few hours (I've been checking out the timing and text stuff in the meantime). 5 different brands up ahead.
After 7h30' --- Kawasaki #11 leads, Suzuki #2 30secs behind, Yamaha #7 almost 1lap behind, Honda #111 is 1lap behind, Yamaha #13 is 2laps behind and BMW #6 is 2laps 1/2 behind. Considering how short the laps are (1'40") that's some fairly tight competition.

Problems for the Yamaha #13 (5th), the rider had to do a reset of the bike at some point and had to come in earlier than expected.

BTW, wild shit of the day related to the race:
Sheridan Morais, originally from 🇿🇦, is racing with a 🇵🇹 license because South Africa's political situation is so fucking bad he basically has stopped going back home at all.

Stupid (but important) difference between EWC and STK1000 motorbikes.
· In EWC bikes, you're allowed to change the type of nuts and bolts of the bike. Most teams tend to change them to just one type and different sizes to make repairs faster. You need more tools to assemble/disassemble a STK1000 bike, making repairs more annoying to do.

GREAT NEWS EVERYBODY - Eurosport Events (organizer of FIM EWC) has agreed to have "some kind of endurance race" (8, 12 or 24 hours) in Spa!!!

OMFG, major drama!!! BMW #6 has crashed and has made the SC come out. They were 6th before the crash.

Top3 (Kawasaki #11, Suzuki #2 and Honda #111) will restart within like 10 seconds of each other. Yamaha #7 will restart around 1lap 1/2 behind the leader.

If you want to watch this at any point (still 15h left to go), check out these links. http://old.reddit.com/r/motorsportsstreams/comments/bet91j/request_fim_ewc_24hrs_le_mans_satsun_please/

LIVE TIMING - You can even read the official messages (crashes and penalties) and, if you click on a name, you can see more stats. http://www.its-live.net/live/ewc/2018-19/24h/12

DRAMA ALERT --- Honda #111 (3rd before this) has crashed! It was soft crash and the sportbike is probably somewhat easy to repair but still a very costly crash.
That team went from leading to 2 laps back to being on the lead lap... and now they've crashed. Endurance racing is a bitch!

BMW #6, the team that was in the top6 for like 8h and then crashed, has decided to retire from the race after being 1h in the box doing repairs. The TV showed images inside the box, they seemed to be talking about the repairs still needed and noticed they were going to lose a ton of time.

The FIM Endurance World Championship is now one of the only major championships in the World where there is still a tyre war. Some of the top teams run Bridgestone, some Dunlop and some Pirelli. Kinda cool to see that.

14h to go --- Top3 on the lead lap
4th is 1lap 3/4 behind
5th is 2laps 1/2 behind

DRAMA ALERT --- Yamaha Austria #7 (4th before this) doing some major repairs, engine might've stopped working entirely.

Remember how the championship-winning Honda TSR #1 crashed during the 1st hour and lost 11 laps? Well, they haven't lost a single lap ever since. They're now inside the top15, not bad.

DOUBLE RETIREMENT - Both Yamaha Austria #7 and BMW GERT56 #56 (the one with 1 girl in the lineup) have both retired. Both because of mechanical issues unrelated to crashes. Yamaha Austria (also known as YART) is one of the best teams of the FIM EWC and GERT56 finished 4th in the other French 24h race (Bol d'Or) like 2 years ago.

Look at all the filth on the CBR1000RR, that bike has been gaining weight just with mosquitoes and dust.

Major LoL --- The all-girls team miscalculated the fuel consumption and ran out of fuel BEFORE entering the pitlane. They're almost last but still a pain in the ass to push the bike for a while.

FUN FACT - Suzuki #2 has been stopped for 17 secs LESS than Kawasaki #11. What is the gap between 1st and 2nd? 22 seconds. That's how stupidly tight the race has been so far.

HALFWAY THROUGH --- Here's the top15 so far!

STATS so FAR
· Leader's distance = 2016km (around 1250 miles)
· Motorbikes that started = 59
· Still running = 47
· Teams within 90% of that = 36

CAN THIS GET ANY BETTER? --- After 12h30' of racing, there has been another lead change. Suzuki #2 had some slight problems during their latest pitstop and now Kawasaki #11 leads again.
7 seconds between 1st and 2nd... after 12 hours and 30 minutes, DAMN!

Almost 12h after their crash that made them lose 11 laps, championship-winning Honda TSR #1 is still only 11 laps down and has recently entered the top10. NEVER GIVE UP! 👏🏻

The 13th retirement has happened - The only Aprilia RSV4 on the field has died and cannot be repaired. 46 teams still left alive.

TEN HOURS to GO
Kawasaki #11 leads by 60 seconds over Suzuki #2, Honda #111 is 1'50" behind (a bit over a lap), Yamaha #13 almost 4laps behind, Kawasaki #8 almost 7laps behind, Honda #1 still 11laps behind.
Suzuki #50 leads the STK1000 class, Yamaha #96 around 3laps behind, Kawasaki #55 is 5laps behind and Yamaha #66 around 6laps behind.

HOT!!!

Top3 all in the same lap with 9 hours to go. It's both infuriating and absolutely admirable how Honda TSR #1 hasn't lost a single lap after their 1st-hour. They could've fought for the win as hard as anybody else.

2nd and 3rd are fighting it out, almost wheel-to-wheel, Kawasaki #11 has around 1'15" on both teams.

Here comes the Sun! ☀
Also, yes, that is 2nd and 3rd nose-to-tail after almost 15h30'. 😍

The Japs following the race and talking about it on Twitter seem to be rather happy that Honda TSR #1 (a French-Japanese team) is still 11 laps behind and in 6th place overall.

Suzuki #2 stops for fuel and tyres after being chased by Honda #111 for over 30 minutes. Meanwhile, brake problems have made Honda #1 stop a bit early, it's their 1st noticeable problem since their 1st-hour crash.

David Checa has had a Hell of a stint if you ask me. He opened up the gap to both Suzuki #2 and Honda #111 by like 20-30 seconds. He is the younger brother of Carlos Checa (WorldSBK champion and GP500 race winner).

There is something beautiful about a filthy-looking sportbike. The underside was supposed to be WHITE! 😮

So 2nd and 3rd just bumped into each other. 😮

JESUS-McFucking-CHRIST, Randy --- Honda #111 just has had the fastest lap of the race so far after over 16h of racing.

Even though Randy de Puniet is trying hard, Honda #111 hasn't gained much against either Kawasaki #11 or Suzuki #2.