Superbike at Magny-Cours: where a rider got married during the Bol d'Or!

With the summer break over, this weekend the Superbike World Championship returns to action at the Magny-Cours circuit. Not a “Cathedral in the desert,” but in fact a Cathedral in the heart of Burgundy, without any particular attractions in the surrounding areas.

In 2003, the Magny-Cours track was also a Cathedral… for a full-fledged wedding that went down in history, starring a rider who that weekend was racing in the Bol d’Or.

It happened during the 67th edition of the great French motorcycle classic held over the weekend of September 13–14 at Magny-Cours. The 70,000 spectators in attendance not only witnessed the victory of the Suzuki S.E.R.T. #2 ridden by the transatlantic hero Jean-Michel Bayle, Nicolas Dussauge, and Sébastien Gimbert, but also a wedding celebrated in the pits and on the starting grid! The Japanese rider Takaharu “Takha” Kishida, as at the Suzuka 8 Hours (and in several subsequent editions) on the grid with the Suzuki GSX-R 1000 #22 fielded by the partnership between Team 22 Police Nationale (the French police team) and TSUKIGI Racing, married his partner Megumi right before the start.

The newlyweds were enthusiastically applauded by the crowd during a double ceremony: the more conventional one on the starting grid, and another in the pits, where the team manager Anne-Marie Spitz playfully handcuffed them… as a reminder of the sanctity of the marital bond. A curious episode in a Bol d’Or that proved more exhausting for poor Takha than a long marriage. During practice, Sébastien Diss, one of the three riders, was injured, forcing him to tackle the 24-hour race with only Gwen Giabbani (future 2009 World Champion with YART) as his teammate.

They managed to finish 12th overall after taking 5th at the Suzuka 8 Hours, but a great sporting joy arrived for the team a few weeks later. On October 6, 2003, Team 22 Police Nationale clinched victory at the 200 Miles of Vallelunga with the same Gwen Giabbani on the #22 Suzuki, alongside Frédéric Moreira and, as the police team, our own Paolo Blora! Kishida was not present on that occasion, evidently on his honeymoon…

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