TRT27 AZ Moto giữ vững đội hình mơ ước giành giải Bol d’Or EWC

03/03/2025

TRT27 AZ Moto will start the 2025 FIM Endurance World Championship with the same trio of riders that completed the 2024 season on the Bol d’Or Superstock podium.

The Honda-powered squad from France has re-signed Finnish Superbike champion Eemeli Lahti and accomplished British racers Tom Oliver and Tom Ward for 2025 having finished last year’s EWC with a breakthrough third-place finish at Circuit Paul Ricard.

And Ward, 30, believes maintaining status quo in terms of the rider line-up gives Eric Tanésie’s Dunlop-equipped outfit a strong chance of more EWC success in 2025.

“We hoped to start 2024 with myself, Tom Oliver and Eemeli Lahti but we weren’t able to because Eemeli went to another team, so we had to wait until Bol d’Or to all ride together again,” Ward said. “But we’ve got our dream team, which is really cool. We knew we could do a good result the whole time last year, but things didn’t come together at Le Mans or Spa, and we didn’t end up going to Suzuka. But with the Bol d’Or result we’ve proven what we can do together as riders and I’m hoping we can rectify things that didn’t work out last year this year and have a good go at the title. And with the team taking over the full running of the bikes this year after we helped with that last year, we can just turn up and ride, which will be a lot less stressful and puts us in a lot better position mentally.”

Of the prospects of a first FIM Endurance World Cup title for TRT27 AZ Moto, Ward said: “It’s what we’re going for. You don’t want to jinx yourself by saying you’re capable of doing something. But with the team, the riders and the bike we have the potential to go for the championship, although luck has got to go our way.

“Even at the end of the Bol d’Or when we were in third, we had a brake failure with less than two hours left. I had to come back in so they could change the whole front brake cylinder. We thought the race was over when we thought we were going to be on the podium. We were only half a lap ahead of fourth place in the end.”

Like his team-mates Lahti and Oliver, Ward will combine his EWC campaign with a programme of national-level races. “I’ll be doing British Superbike as well and I’m buzzing for it,” Ward said. “I really enjoy doing BSB but going into EWC and the community of people you have, I’ve got so much time and love for it so I’m really excited. You have to be on the limit on every single lap in BSB, but fitness wise, the amount of riding you do in EWC makes a massive difference. I probably rode the best I ever rode last year because of the amount of time on the bike in EWC. The two championships go hand in hand with each other very well.”