Kenny Foray: With winning streak towards to the third title.
Munich. 2017, 2022, 2023: Kenny Foray has been crowned champion in the French Superbike Championship (FSBK) for the third time this season. After the season opener at Le Mans didn’t quite go according to plan with seventh and sixth places, Foray then started an impressive comeback on his Tecmas Racing Team BMW M 1000 RR. At round two at Nogaro, he claimed his first podium of the season. That was followed by a stunning winning streak of seven victories in eight races. Foray therefore arrived at the Le Castellet season finale as the championship leader, securing the title with P2 in the penultimate race of the season. With the job done, he finished the final race in style. The old and new champion Foray rounded off the season with his eighth win of the year. Let’s talk to him about this great season.
Images © Stéphane Valembois / SV Agency
Kenny Foray
© Stéphane Valembois / SV Agency
Kenny, congrats on your third title in FSBK! Eight wins in 14 races: what was your secret of success?
Kenny Foray: “There are a lot but let me highlight one factor. Last year, everything was working well but was not everything was 100 percent perfect. During the winter, we had a big change inside the team. And to work with new people, you have to make a kind of a small reset. And I think this was a secret of success this year, because like this, everyone was working with new ideas and sometimes we discovered new ways to go. It was immediately better, and when we had our first test in January, my feeling was very, very good. After that test I knew that it will a good season. Of course it is impossible to say if you can win or not after you just finished the test, but the feeling on the bike was incredible and then the season was for sure super.”
Kenny Foray
© Stéphane Valembois / SV Agency
What have been your emotions after the difficult season opener: a bit down or absolutely willing to fight back?
Foray: “The season opener has been a really bad weekend regarding the results – but a good weekend in regards of my feeling. So for me, there was no doubt for the rest of the season. We have just been unlucky in the first race. You know it: you have not a single problem during the winter and for sure the first one will always come at a really bad time. I had to start from pit lane and there were 44 competitors, so you can imagine that it was a long way towards the front. So P7 was not a bad result after starting from last. And during the second race, I was fighting for the win with Mike di Meglio, and when you had a bad result in the first race you want to push and you want to win. So I pushed a lot, and I think it was a little bit too much (laughs), and I crashed. But I was lucky because I could pick up the bike and finish in P6. So okay, the results had not been good and nobody wants to begin the season like that. But we were only 28 points behind and that is not a big problem when you have still 12 remaining races.”
Arnaud Sassone & Kenny Foray
© Stéphane Valembois / SV Agency
You then started an impressive winning streak. Is everything a bit easier when you have the momentum of success?
Foray: “Well, during this streak of seven victories in eight races there was one crash again. And that one was not easy. It had been difficult because everything was working well and we knew that we needed to close the points gap. We had arrived at Magny-Cours two points behind di Meglio and everything was good. But then in race one, there was a red flag while I was leading and after the restart, we had only four laps. That is never easy because you really have to push and I crashed. After that, my gap to di Meglio was at 28 points again. I always thought I had to push all the time because the gap to the championship front was so big. So that was my approach over the entire season. I was talking to my brother a lot about that and he said: ‘Kenny, for you, it will be never easy to win a championship. You need to fight until the last race. It is like that. It was the case last year and I am sure it will be the case this year. You just need to win and fight and I am sure you will win it’. So this is always in my head: I need to win, win, win, win. Which I did. Okay, on paper it looked easy but it was never easy because we were always the chasers and if you make a small mistake you can lose everything. But I knew that we had an advantage; we were the best. We just had to win to secure the title win.”
Kenny Foray
© Stéphane Valembois / SV Agency
At what point of the season did you know that you will be champion again?
Foray: “After the first qualifying on the first race weekend of the season. I knew very soon that it was possible to achieve something really good. Because like I said, my feeling on the bike was really fantastic and everything was working well. And I thought that normally, if we don’t make a mistake, if I don’t make a mistake, we can win a lot of races. After the first race, I knew that it was possible. But I kept these thoughts for myself because I didn’t want to tell everybody: ‘This year, I will we champion!’ But for myself, I knew it was possible to win the title again very early in the season.”
You raced the new BMW M 1000 RR this season. How would you describe the bike?
Foray: “In the French Superbike Championship, the competition is so high that it is impossible to win the championship if you don’t have a good bike. And my bike was perfect, as have been my tyres. For me it is the best bike today, and I also have the advantage that I know it very well. Of course, there is always something you can further improve, but it has been a really, really good bike.”
Kenny Foray & Tecmas Racing Team
© Stéphane Valembois / SV Agency
The Tecmas Racing Team around Arnaud Sassone seems to be like a big family, and you race together in FSBK as well as the FIM Endurance World Championship, where you guys secured the Superstock win at the 24h Le Mans. Is it a big family?
Foray: “Yes, absolutely, even if there have been some changes this year. All the guys are young and really motivated. And that makes it very easy to work together. It is a really good team and the spirit within the team is great. We can say that it is a family, especially for me as I have been with Tecmas for many years now.”
24h Le Mans
What has been the highlight of your season?
Foray: “There have been a few. Of course the 24 hours of Le Mans. To immediately win the first race of the team in the Superstock class of the FIM Endurance World Championship was great. Sure, a lot of people said: ‘Yes, Tecmas is coming, they are coming with BMW, they want to win.’ But it’s not easy to win straight away. But we achieved that and for me that was really impressive. We had really good pace, we set lap records, and for me it was just a great moment to stand on the podium with the team and the trophy.”
A long season is over now, what do you do to take a breath and recharge your batteries over winter?
Foray: “Of course you want to take some rest but for me it is difficult to stay in my house so normally I am training a lot. I love that. I need to always do some sport. So I run a lot and enjoy the rest of the time with my family.”
