19 May 2005
Round 2– Albacete, Spain
This second race of the World Endurance Championships has in previous years been a 12 hour race starting at 9 o’clock at night running through until 9 o’clock in the morning. The toughest part of a traditional 24 hrs race. Running at high speed during the hours of darkness. This year the organisers had decided to change the format.

As at the later race at Suzuka the race was to be held over an allotted time of 8 hours. The race would start at 6 pm Saturday and would run until 2 am Sunday morning. Thus although the race has been shortened the need to practice during night sessions remained.

After Diablo 666’s excellent result at Assen, the Team were looking forward to another top 10 points scoring finish to continue their 2005 season and indeed ended the meeting still holding 4th in the Championship only headed by the full works Suzuki Castrol, Partner team Bolliger Kawasaki and mega funded Yamaha Austria.

Once again the riders on board were to be James Hutchins, Kevin Falcke and Steve Mizera.

Friday 20th and Saturday 21st May 2005
Free & Qualifying Practice
The weather traditionally for this round is fantastic. Paddling pools being the order of the day in an effort for everyone to keep cool. This year was no different with temperatures well into the 90s.

Therefore excellent weather conditions greeted the riders out on circuit and all three riders enjoyed a trouble free run in the free sessions and with no crashes life for Diablo’s happy band of mechanics led as usual by Geoff & Doug Randall, was restricted to swapping the “best” parts from bike to bike to give the riders the chance to try out both bikes during the various sessions for the first at a race meeting, a welcome new luxury for the Diablo Team.

Pirelli were being even more helpful than usual in offering the Team additional tyres to try out and the riders certainly noticed the difference between the different tyre compounds on offer. Albacete is known to offer very little grip and many teams suffered crashes during qualifying most notably the 4 & 7 Yamahas.

Friday 20th May 2005, 21:30 to 23:10
Night Practice
One of the major differences with the round in Albacete are the night practices which the riders must participate in. The circuit is fully lit unlike the total darkness at the Oschersleben 24hrs and although not the same as running in daylight hours, the riders find it easy to lap at high speed, helped as much by the machines producing more power in the cooler conditions and it being much more comfortable for the riders.

With the 2nd Qualifying session starting at 9:30 the following morning, it was important that the rider debriefing was kept short with the riders heading back to the teams hotel for as much sleep as possible before race day. It was decided a good Team drink was essential and all but the riders headed from the hotel to an adjacent bar to chill and to discuss the technical aspects of the local San Miguel beers. An early start was a must to ensure that everything was tip top for the all important 2nd qualifying session. Certain junior members of the support team decided to take advantage of the local “club scene”.

Saturday 21st May 2005, 09:45 to 11:50
Qualifying Practice 2
The last chance to get further up the traditional endurance grid. Now again down to the business of the second qualifying sessions, all three riders now being totally familiar with the circuit, it was hoped that we might improve upon our provisional 10th grid position from the first sessions.

With qualifying over the Team finally ended up in 13th position. This was thanks to James Hutchins’ time of 1:36:498. Partner Team, Bolliger Kawasaki had recorded a time only 1.2 seconds faster than Diablo 666 and would be starting from 5th. Only the mega budget Teams running full blown Superbike Spec bikes namely Castrol Suzuki, Folch Endurance, Yamaha Phase 1 and Yamaha Austria were able to break the 1:35:00 barrier.

Pole time had been set as usual by SERT Suzuki Nr. 2 with a time of 1:32:740, no doubt on super sticky qualifiers but Diablo 666 were confident of a good race pace and that all important good final race position.

Saturday 21st May 2005, 14:30 to 15:15
Warm Up
No rest for the wicked. The riders were out again on track for this all important final sorting session. The race is ‘only’ 8 hrs but rest assured with the tight schedule of free, night and qualifying sessions by the end of the meeting the riders are totally worn out with the heat obviously taking its toll as well.

With the excitement of the start time looming at 1800 hrs, it was important for the riders to chill out as much as possible during this short interval. Geoff and brother Doug as ever along with the Currier brothers Mark and John, beavered away in the garage carrying out final checks on the race bike. It had been decided to run the new 2 bike with the front end and rear suspension from the 1 bike along with the larger capacity tank. Hence it was all change yet again and another busy couple of hours for the mechanics.

Saturday 21st May 2005, 18:00 to 02:00
The Race
Expectations were still very high within the team starting from 13th on the grid, with James Hutchins starting and riding the first leg.

With the temperature still in the 90’s the normal start procedure was adopted with many scantily clad young ladies present. However, the riders were left sweltering in the heat for a full 10 minutes before the lights went green and the race was finally go!

James got an absolute flyer and came round in 5th position, what a start for the Team! As time went by James was being caught slowly by Warwick Nowland on the Phase 1 senior bike. Diablo 666 are certainly right from the start mixing it with the big boys now.

James was then embroiled in a titanic battle with Paul Young on the Fabersjo-El.SE No 12. bike. Paul is well known to British race fans for his exploits in the superstock class of British Superbikes but he also has extensive experience in endurance racing. This battle was only finally ended when the 12 bike developed an electrical fault after 4 hrs and Paul was forced to push the bike in dropping the team well down the order. Again another example of Diablo 666 running with some of the top names in Motorcycle Racing.

Fantastic pit stops again by the experienced Bolliger pit crew saw the Team maintain their 6th position just behind the 8 Bolliger bike into the darkness with Kevin Falcke and Steve Mizera maintaining James’ early pace. We were however being caught by the 6 and 112 bikes and after 5 hrs all three bikes were on the same lap. It was going to be close racing to the finish and this is exactly what happened. With positions being swapped as pit stops came and went, this battle would go on right until the flag.

We knew it was going to be close and within the final hour and round of pit stops we were just overtaken by the 6 Shell Academy bike and the hugely experienced 112 Team 18 Sapeurs – Pompiers bike who ran for the last 1 hour and 20 minutes without a refuelling stop! After 8 hrs all three bikes were on the same lap separated by the massive time of 1 minute and 1.6 seconds!

With the 8 Bolliger bike managing to overhaul the 6 Phase 1 Senior bike, due to Phase 1 suffering from overheating problems, Bolliger ended the race in a magnificent 4th place.

All round the Diablo / Bolliger garage were well satisfied with the weekends efforts in the heat of Albacete. Another race, another bag full of points for both Teams. Plans are already afoot for the next round in Suzuka.

Provisional Race Result after 8 hrs:

World Endurance Championship Positions:
After 2 rounds

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