25 September 2005
Round 5 – Vallelunga, Italy
After the fantastic result for the Team at the Oschersleben 24hrs round, was this race going to be the dream end to the 2005 season for the Diablo 666 Bolliger Kawasaki Team?

Having raced at this circuit for the past two seasons and having had top ten finishes, 8th in 2003 and 9th in 2004, the Team were hoping for an even better result to keep their hopes of a top 3 finish in the Championship alive. It was going to take a supreme effort by Team riders James Hutchins, Steve Mizera and Russell Baker to better the likes of Yamaha Austria and Phase 1 Endurance at this traditional end of season sprint race to the World Endurance Championship. These two top endurance teams are the ones who could spoil the end of year party for Diablo 666 Kawasaki.

The goal of the Team at the beginning of the year had been to achieve a top ten placing in the Championship. Who would have dreamed that the Team would be lying as high as third going into this final round? Not too many even within the Team.

Free Practice
Having been advised the the Vallelunga circuit had been modified just prior to travelling out to Italy, the free practice on Friday would be vital to getting good qualifying times in. So out on the newly extended circuit for the first time the Diablo 666 riders would have to familiarise themselves with the new layout unlike the local riders who had already been there testing!

Friday’s first free practice saw the gremlins, for the first time in 2005, attack both of Diablo 666’s bikes not helping rider knowledge of the new circuit to say the least. Better now though rather than during the race on Sunday however. A mysterious electrical short on the No. 2 bike causing James Hutchins to push in after only half a lap of his first session! This was eventually traced to a defective fuel pump and replaced but precious practice time had been lost with Steve Mizera missing out altogether in this first session.

Next a defective generator on the No. 1 bike, causing the engine to require a complete rebuild as this decided to disintegrate! With only two hours between practice sessions it was decided to swap engines in this bike for a new spare unit lent by Diablo’s partner team, Bolliger Kawasaki. Many, many thanks Hanspeter. The Diablo mechanics were almost a blur and with ten minutes to spare, mission accomplished. Diablo 666 were back up and running with two fully operational machines!

The remainder of free practice two saw both bikes run faultlessly and the riders put in their first truly competitive laps until the pace car came came out, wasting half the session! The Team were now ready for qualifying even though the Diablo 666 riders were still getting used to the new circuit layout due to lack of track time.

Qualifying
After the dramas and gremlins of Friday, the Diablo 666 riders went into Saturday’s qualifying sessions in confident mood. While it seemed a number of the top fancied runners were rebuilding bikes after enormous crashes during the mornings first qualifying session, the Diablo 666 mechanics enjoyed a quiet and relaxing lunch hour for a change, especially after their amazing efforts of Friday!

In the morning sessions James Hutchins had set Diablo’s fastest time of the weekend, a 1:43.815, putting the Team 7th initially on the provisional grid.

As the temperature soared in the afternoon the grip from the track was not as good and times were generally slower than the morning session. The Team’s best time again had been put in by James who was really on the pace from the beginning of his session ending up 6th in his group. However, a couple of other local wildcard teams putting in late and slightly better times but Diablo 666 would be starting from 9th overall, our highest qualifying of the 2005 season.

“After the problems we had with the bikes this has been a brilliant result”, commented Team Principal, Miles Hutchins, “once again a total team effort from our mechanics and riders alike”.

In addition, David Morillion had recovered from the disaster of the Bol d’Or the weekend before and put the No. 8 Bolliger bike 2nd on the grid. What a way to answer the critics.

The Race
The weather had as usual been superb leading up to raceday. As the bikes assembled on the grid James was really fired up to getting away with the front runners in a effort to hang on to our 3rd in the Championship.

During the practice start James was away and gone in 5th place. After two laps the riders reassembled on the grid, the flag dropped and the Vallelunga 200 miler was go! James again was away in the leading bunch but disaster. Suddenly James lost all drive from the rear Dymag wheel, he reached the end of pit lane turned the bike round and pushed the bike back to the Diablo garage. In the garage it was discovered the bonding of the hub had disintegrated causing the centre section of the hub to spin freely losing all final drive. A new wheel was thrown in but James had lost three laps on the entire field. Could the Team salvage anything from this race? We would see, Diablo 666 were not dead and buried yet.

Conversely, David Morillion got his customary flying start and was leading the race over the line at the end of lap 1.

James valiantly rode the wheels off Diablo 666’s ZX-10, posting one of the fastest times at this stage of the race in the process. At the end of his stint he had fought back up to 24th, out of the 35 starters but we were still well out of the points. Our grip on 3rd in the Championship was fast disappearing as both Yamaha Austria, Phase 1 Endurance and Shell Endurance Academy were all going to overtake us in the table, dropping us to 6th possibly based on the race positions as they stood.

Next up was Steve Mizera, again he was lapping some four to five seconds quicker than those riders immediately in front of him and as he handed over to Russell Baker he also quickly was riding a brilliant stint and as the laps ticked by, Diablo 666 were getting closer and closer to being back in the points and in the top 15.

With ten laps to go we were up to 18th, catching the 14th to 17th placed teams hand over fist. With two laps to go we were 16th, just one place out of the points!

With this race only being 200 miles in duration to have lost three full laps on the entire field there was no way we were going to get back up to our now customary top ten placing, to actually get back and score a single point was going to take a superhuman effort and as Russell crossed the line the riders had failed by just two seconds to catch and pass the 15th placed rider.

Where were Yamaha Austria? They finished in 3rd, Phase 1 Endurance, 2nd, with the race being won once again by the dominant works Castrol Suzuki.

Marcel Kellenberger and Davide Morillion had ridden brilliantly to bring home the Bolliger Kawasaki in 4th , consolidating their 2nd in the Championship. Congratulations from the whole Diablo 666 Team to their partner team for the fantastic result and a big thank you to Hanspeter Bolliger and his squad for all the assistance offered to our team once again during the 2005 season.

Diablo 666 have finished the 2005 season in a fantastic 5th overall, at the beginning of the year no one would have thought that possible, including many within the Team itself. A top five placing in only its 2nd full season – how far can the Team go in the future?

Terry Rymer, Team Manager reflected after the race, “Its been a brilliant year for the Team, to finish 5th in only our second full season is a fantastic achievement and deserves now factory support and a major title sponsor to come on board.”

“I am just disappointed that we were unable to properly defend our 3rd place in the Championship but I am still extremely proud of the Team finishing 5th overall”, commented Team Principal, Miles Hutchins.

James Hutchins enthused, “The bike was just so fast in the race, if only we had not had that start line problem, 5th in the race at least was definitely on the cards.”

“It has been an honour to be part of this team as a sponsor for the third year running, the whole Team’s enthusiasm is truly infectious”, added Bob Copare, “who would have thought that with our limited funding we could have achieved so much. Thanks for another brilliant year. Count me in again for next year!”

It really has been a brilliant year for both Diablo 666 and Bolliger Kawasaki. 2nd and 5th for Kawasaki in the Championship in only the second season running the ZX-10’s. In no other road racing Championship in 2005 have Kawasaki enjoyed such success, forget MotoGP, World Superbikes, and British Superbikes. It’s in World Endurance where Diablo 666 and Bolliger Kawasaki are making the headlines and getting the results. Perhaps now the factory will offer the financial assistance that our two privateer teams need to get on level terms with the likes of the dominant works Suzuki team.

Diablo 666 have already begun the task of tracking down the funding from major sponsors for the 2006 season that is needed to spearhead a serious title challenge next year.

If there are any bike racing mad millionaires out there reading this report, mere mortals who would like to join the team or current sponsors who would like to increase their current involvement with the Team, please get in touch with Miles Hutchins or Bob Copare as soon as possible. Look out for the Diablo 666 machines at the NEC and Ally Pally Shows over the long winter months ahead of us.

World Endurance Championship Positions:
After 5 rounds

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