3 October 2004
Round 7 – Vallelunga Italy
After the disappointment of the previous round at Oschersleben, the Team was surprisingly upbeat about the race ahead, the 200 miler at Vallelunga, Italy.

This was the scene of Diablo 666’s first success in the World Endurance Racing Championship the year before finishing a magnificent 8th.

This time round the rider line up would be James Hutchins, Kevin Falcke, now fully recovered from his Oschersleben crash and German rider Steve Mizera drafted into the Team from the Bolliger Kawasaki Team at Oschersleben.

From the start of practice it became clear how close the three riders lap times were. In glorious weather apart from early morning mist, the Team ended qualifying in 17th place. Bolliger Kawasaki again did the business qualifying much higher in 5th place. The only problem encountered was a crash by Steve Mizera. The bike was quickly repaired and no damage done to the rider.

Unlike 2003, the race was to be run in beautiful Italian autumn weather. No problem with choosing slicks this time. The running order this time was Kevin starting, James on the middle stint and Steve to run to the flag.

The start saw Kevin blast away from the line and establish the Team in 12th place, James rode a stirling middle section and Steve completed a thoroughly professional performance. Another brilliant result for the Team coming home in 9th position with the Bolliger Kawasaki finishing just ahead in 8th place.

What a brilliant end to the 2004 season. The Diablo 666 Bolliger Kawasaki Team had started the year with a new, unproven bike and apart from the broken tying wire causing the oil filter to unscrew spraying oil over rider James Hutchins, had run faultlessly during the entire season. Much of this reliability must go to the obvious talents of the Bolliger Team and the widely experienced Geoff Randall in preparing the bikes. A little known fact is that the engine of the Diablo 666 machine was absolutely standard as can be purchased from any Kawasaki dealer.

The Team ended the season in 13th place; this could have been so much higher had it not been for the DNF at the double points scoring round at Oschersleben.

With a careful tuning programme in the pipelines for the forthcoming off-season to up the available horsepower of the machines, 2005 looks like being even more successful for the Team.

< Back to main news page