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2011
MONZA

8 HORAS NOCTURNAS DE ALBACETE 2010 - Spain 22nd MAY

ALBACETE - THE RACE

AFTER 3 HOURS: Nothing went according to the plan at Albacete! At 9 pm, after three hours of racing, the Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland of Horst Saiger, Patric Muff and Roman Stamm leads the race ahead of the French Suzuki RAC 41 City Bike of Olivier Depoorter, Greg Black and Greg Junod and the Spanish Yamaha YMES Folch Endurance ridden by Pedro Vallcaneras, Jordi Almeda and Jose Luis Rita. Then come the Honda National Motos of Emeric Jonchière and David Morillon, the Suzuki AM Moto Racing of Julien Millet, Anthony Dos Santos and Raphael Chèvre, and the Suzuki RT Moto Virus of Lucas de Carolis, Eric Mizera and William Grare. The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team of Vincent Philippe, Daisaku Sakai and Freddy Foray are only in seventh place, but they already made a great comeback. As many other favourites, the SERT was involved in a collective crash at the beginning of the race. The Suzuki Motor Events had been leaking a bit of oil; the following lap, not less than ten machines were hitting the ground! Taking part of the leading battle from the start, Vincent Philippe on the SERT, Gwen Giabbani on the Yamaha Austria, as well as Damian Cudlin on the Honda BMP Elf 99 paid their duty to the misfortune, as Gregorio Lavilla on the Yamaha France GMT 94, Jérôme Tangre on the Suzuki 18 Sapeurs Pompiers and Anthony Delhalle on the Suzuki Qatar Endurance Racing Team 1. Some of them managed to get back on track quickly, as did the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team and, to a certain extent, the Honda BMP Elf 99. But some other teams lost a lot of time. YART had to come back to the pits to repair and lost more time when Steve Martin also crashed later on. Some had to give up, like Yamaha France GMT 94 Ipone, as Gregorio Lavilla was sent to the hospital, or the Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers, without Jérôme Tangre. BK Maco Moto also retired from the race, as the radiator had been broken from the crash.

In the Superstock class, the BMW Andalucia ((Alvaro Molina, Camille Hedelin, Agoston Rosivall), the BMW Colexon Racing Team (Florian Kresse, Marc Wildisen et Udo Reichman) and the Suzuki MCS Racing Ipone
(Janez Prosenik, Ricardo Sasseta et Bostjan Pintar) are leading the class. After being dominating the qualifications and a start from the third place on the grid, the Suzuki Qatar Endurance Racing Team 1 is now at the back of the pack. The arrival will be at 2 am Sunday morning.

RACE FINISH: Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took victory in Spain following a fantastic comeback. After being sent to the end of the pack from the start of the race, Vincent Philippe, Daisaku Sakai and Freddy Foray took the leadership after six hours of racing and finished one lap ahead the Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland of Horst Saiger, Patric Muff and Roman Stamm, which did a great race. After their sixth place at Le Mans, that gives Bolliger the provisional championship leadership. There was some intense battle for the third place on the podium between the Spanish Yamaha YMES Folch Endurance of Pedro Vallcaneras, Jordi Almeda and Jose-Luis Rita, and the French Honda National Motos of Emeric Jonchière and David Morillon. The podium goes finally to the Honda. The Suzuki RT Moto Virus of Lucas de Carolis, Eric Mizera and William Grare is rewarded from their faultless race by a fifth place, ahead of the Suzuki AM Moto Racing of Julien Millet, Anthony dos Santos and Raphael Chèvre. After a start from pole position, but rapidly sent at the back of the pack like the SERT, the Honda BMP Elf 99 of Matthieu Lagrive, Damian Cudlin finished in eight place. The Team X-One takes victory in the Superstock class with Emiliano Bellucci, Vittorio Iannuzzo and Luca Bono, ahead of the Kawasaki Atomic Moto (Lorenzo Sainz, Emmanuel Thuillier, Michael Lalevée) and the BMW Andalucia of Alvaro Molina, Camille Hedelin and Agoston Rosivall. A collective crash from the beginning of the race added some serious drama, as an oil patch sent on the ground not less than ten machines, including the leader, SERT, battling with Yamaha Austria, Honda BMP Elf 99, the Yamaha France GMT 94 Ipone and the Suzuki from Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers and Qatar Endurance Racing Team 1. The SERT and Honda BMP Elf 99 managed to get back on track but for some others the chances to clinch onto the podium were gone. Injured riders of Yamaha France GMT 94 (Gregorio Lavilla) and the Suzuki Sapeurs Pompiers (Jérôme Tangre) could not bring back the bike to the pits. BK Maco Moto had to give up, with a leaking radiator; Yamaha Austria, since their bike was damaged by a second crash, couldn’t make a great result and finished in 9th position in EWC. The Yamaha LTG 57 spent 20 minutes to repair a front fork and finished 13th in the Superstock class. Since they managed to avoid the collective crash, RMT 21 Racing Germany and RAC 41 City Bike were in the leading trio until mid-race. The Honda RMT 21 had to give up as one of their two riders, Fred Moreira, was injured after a crash. The Suzuki RAC 41 also left the race due to some crashing. The BMW Colexon Racing Team, once well placed in the beginning of the race in the Superstock class, had to retire as the gearbox broke down.

FULL RESULTS - STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 2

BMR-ELF99 AT ALBACETE

The BMP-ELF-99 Racing Team head for this weekend's 8 Horas Nocturnas De Albacete race in a confident mood, having completed a successful two-day test at the Spanish track just three weeks ago, Damian Cudlin, one of the three riders that rode the BMP-ELF-99 Racing Team CBR1000 to a hard fought 15th place at Le Mans, securing eighth place in the championship standings, shouldered the testing responsibilities over the two days in Albacete. The Australian rider ended the test with a lap time almost two seconds faster than the best race time at the 3.539km Spanish circuit. For this weekend's Albacete race, the second round of the Endurance World Championship, Cudlin will once again be partnered by four-time World Endurance Champion, Matthieu Lagrive, who was also part of the BMP-ELF-99 team's rider line up at Le Mans. The third rider at Le Mans, Werner Daemen, will also be at Albacete, but this time in his new role as the BMP-ELF-99 Racing Team's Sporting Manager. The Belgian rider brings a vast amount of experience to his new role, which will strengthen the team considerably and eliminate some of the problems experienced in the Le Mans race.

Circuito de Albacete is located 170km inland from Alicante and was first opened in 1990. The circuit, which features five left-hand and eight right-hand corners, hosted a World Superbike round from 1992 to 1999, but the 8 Horas Nocturnas De Albacete is now the biggest international motorcycle event on the Spanish circuit's calendar.

Damian Cudlin
"I'm more confident going into this race than I was going into Le Mans, as we're better prepared as a team than we've ever been. I'm really looking forward to it as we're heading to Albacete off the back of a really positive test at the circuit and I think we'll be in a position to spring a few surprises this weekend. We proved in Le Mans that we're one of the fastest teams out there and, if it hadn't been for a couple of issues, we'd have finished a lot higher than we did. But, we learnt a lot from Le Mans and that will stand us in good stead this weekend in Albacete. The bike is good, the tyres are good and we know we have a good set-up, so I'd be disappointed if we came away from this weekend with anything less than a podium finish."

DAMIAN CUDLIN DEMONSTRATES THE "TRIPOD" TECHNIQUE

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
"We had a very successful test with Damian at Albacete three weeks ago, so we head into this race confident that the bike and the tyres are both more than capable of a good result this weekend. Damian and Matthieu were consistently the fastest riders on track at Le Mans, so we know they have the pace, but we were let down in that race by a couple of mistakes in the pits, which is why we've strengthened this side of the team by bringing in Werner as the Sporting Manager. He will oversee the team's activities on track and I'm confident that, which his vast amount of experience, we will not have a repeat of the issues that cost us so much time at Le Mans. I am looking forward to a good result by the team this weekend at Albacete, where I think a podium finish is a realistic possibility given our testing performance at the track previously."

ALBACETE 8 HORAS

The 2010 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship started mid April in the fast lane with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The first round was won by the GSR Kawasaki with Julien da Costa, Olivier Four and Gregory
Leblanc, ahead of the 2009 Qtel FIM Endurance World Champions Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani of the Yamaha Austria Racing Team. The YART has got a good lead for the 2010 world title, since
team GSR won’t participate in all the races this season and also since SERT, another great challenger, didn’t score any point at Le Mans as they had to retire.

However, Yamaha Austria Racing Team will have to watch the come back of the Yamaha France GMT 94 Ipone from the next round: the “8 Horas Nocturnas of Albacete”, scheduled in Spain on May 22. Despite
lagging behind its new Bridgestone tyres, the French official Yamaha ridden by David Checa, Gregorio Lavilla and Kenny Foray finished fourth at Le Mans. The Suzuki RAC 41 City Bike of Greg Junod, Gregg Black and Olivier Depoorter will be one of the 2010 outsiders. By finishing third at Le Mans, they are definitely in the right track for the 2010 championship, like the Suzuki RT Moto Virus with Frédéric Jond, Eric Mizera and William Grare and the Kawasaki Bolliger Team Switzerland which was very fast at Le Mans with Horst Saiger, Roman Stamm and Frédéric Chabosseau.

Among the unlucky competitors of Le Mans 24 hours, the Honda BMP Elf 99 (Matthieu Lagrive, Damian Cudlin and Werner Daemen) finished 8th, the BMW Michelin (Sébastien Gimbert, Erwan Nigon and Bertrand
Stey) which was forced to retire, the Spanish Yamaha YMES Foch Endurance who is used to being on the Albacete podium will also be highly motivated and the Honda National Motos (Sébastien Scarnato, Emeric Jonchière et Sylvain Barrier) who finally decided to take part in the 8 Hours in Spain.

In the Superstock class, we expect a new confrontation between the Qatar Endurance Racing Team 1 and Team Motor Events, a new challenger in the FIM World Cup, won by QERT in 2008 and 2009. The start of the 8 Hours of Albacete, a semi-nocturnal race, will take place Saturday, on May 22 at 6 pm. The first qualifying sessions are scheduled on Friday morning.

PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST