Race started at 15:00 local time (9:00 East, 6:00 Pacific). There was a SC period even before the 1st lap was over because some amateur Austrian dude got fucked up. The #1 Honda crashed by itself and lost 11 laps (18-19 minutes). Teams are now doing their 1st round of pitstops (it's usually a stop every 45-50 minutes if the SC isn't around).

After 1 round of pitstops
BMW #56 is ridden by the girl of the team, they'll probably sink like a rock. The Bugatti Circuit is quite physical and no girl can perform at the level of riders like Yonny Hernández and David Checa.

BIG CRASH before the main chicane - Some amateur has crashed at like 240kph but he is walking away. The bike (Kawasaki #35) is absolutely totaled.

SECOND BIG CRASH exactly at the same spot!!! Is there oil on the track? 😮

😛

Sounds like a my kind of sport

Rider of the #35 bike (1st crash) is trying to go back to the pitlane, MADLAD!

Race has been restarted - 15 teams on the lead lap.

If it’s not broken...

The bike might be entirely impossible to fix... but motherfucker is gonna take it to the box either way.

The Austrian dude that ate shit HARD during the 1st lap of the race is now at the hospital. He is awake and responsive and is being examined by doctors at a nearby hospital. The TV crews managed to scare me, they refused to show any images of the guy for like a solid minute.

You bunch of weebs might appreciate one of the teams that raced this event some years ago. They still technically race it but only as "technical support" of some team with a non-weeb paintjob.

I swear to God, Lucy Glockner (the one female rider of BMW #56) might just be an ugly misunderstood dude.

The last SC period gave the Honda #111 bike a rather big advantage of around a minute, this means that after 2h30' only 6 bikes are on the lead lap (it should be like 12-13). Honda #111, Yamaha #7, Kawasaki #11, Suzuki #2, BMW #6 and Yamaha #13 are part of the lead lap pack so far.
Still a long long way to go. Rain is not expected at all. This could be a record-setting race if the SC stops coming out so often.

POSSIBLE DRAMA - Now-3rd Yamaha Austria #7 might have some mechanical troubles, he lost like 20 seconds in a lap.

Yamaha Austria #7 hasn't stopped yet but they are losing around 3 seconds per lap. WTF, why is Marvin Fritz 🇩🇪 not stopping? It must be damn obvious that the bike isn't working great.

Okay, the Yamaha Austria pitcrew is preparing to change the braking system entirely. Some are saying that they'll keep Marvin Fritz out with some weak brakes until everything is ready.

Kawasaki #18, a team made of firemen, has had a bit of a crash. Every year there is always a team made of firemen, I've always found it really cool.

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.