Here we are in September 2020, almost at the end of a season … barely started! Team 18, French Firemen Team, after a 2019 season off on the strategic choice of the team, was to come back for a « test » race in its new configuration, team – drivers – machine, at the Bol d’Or at the weekend in Le Castellet. The chance to celebrate the Team’s 20th anniversary too…
After the recently announced cancellation of this edition, and the impossibility of organising the Estoril edition within one month – remember that the team members are all volunteers – all that remains is to look ahead and prepare for 2021! Which is now done, and here’s the brand new programme!
A little glance in the mirror:
Team 18 has taken the start 45 times since 2000, in France in Le Mans, Magny-Cours and Le Castellet, but also abroad: 5 starts in Albacete, 4 in Losail and Oschersleben, and 1 in Portimao and Slovakiaring! Which means that the colours of the French fire brigade are well exported – a quick message to the partners and future new partners of Team 18 😉
What about tomorrow, 2021?
The 2021 programme is promising and motivating, of course, in a stabilised health context that no one can guarantee now. Having a vision is an obligation for any project, so here is the vision of Team 18 to-date.
Goal 1:
Become a again a « Team under contract » signed up on all dates. Here, in Superstock, it is a question of taking all the starts of the races on the FIM Endurance World Cup agenda, i.e. :
- April 2021 : Le Mans
- June 2021 : Oschersleben, Germany (8 hours)
- September 2021 : Bol d’Or Castellet
- November 2021 : Sepang, Malaysia (8 hours)
Goal 2:
To become a major player in this Superstock World Championship, thanks to the accurate technical preparation, with the arrival of CMS Motostore together with Motosport 33. In this sense, Team 18 becomes Team 18 Sapeurs-Pompiers CMS Motostore.
Goal 3:
Strengthen the season’s budget, which remains for all the teams the key. Team 18 has always shown a particularly involved attitude here, not only in the search for sponsors, like all sports teams, but also in the hard work done over the years by all team members to generate a resource of their own.
This is the other pillar of the Team, the trackdays, JSR, Journées Sécurité Routière, around 25 riding days a year, whose main purpose is to play a role in risk prevention, training and even recalibration of inappropriate road behaviour. And these JSRs are therefore also the direct source of funding for the endurance season. This is possible thanks to the involvement of the members of Team 18, all of whom are volunteers.
Obviously, the financial support offered by partners is absolutely essential, and the team’s objective is to further strengthen the links with its partners in order to ensure a balanced and virtuous relationship for all, and to further strengthen reciprocal links. Concrete thinking has been going on since the summer of 2020, and the first drafts are currently taking shape, and will be visible in the coming months, and at the latest at the first 2021 meeting in Le Mans!
In order to be transparent, I would like to specify here that it is in this context that I have chosen to join the Team 18 team this summer 2020 in order to complete my team’s support approach, by making an additional concrete contribution, in addition to the partnership within the scope of Nova Moto’s possibilities and the constant sports communication on Nova Moto since 2011.
I now have the pleasure to support in the work of the relationship with the partners, in addition to that performed by Yannick Bureau, Team Manager, and Ludovic Le Moal, President. This of course also involves all the members of the team, because solidarity is a constant and everyone is the ambassador of Team 18.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their trust, as well as the whole team for the welcome I have been offered live in Magny-Cours or in the distance since July!
Text: Isabelle Maillet
Pictures: Team 18 Sapeurs-Pompiers
