17 September 2006
Round 7 - Bol d'Or, France
After the two previous races at Suzuka and Oschersleben, which had seen an upturn in Diablo 666's fortunes and seen the Team rise to 6th in the World Endurance Championship, hopes were high for another excellent result to round off the 2006 season. However, hopes were dashed early on as the weather forecast was rain, rain and yet more rain for the entire weekend! The Bol d'Or is always notorious for its lack of grip and the amount of running water which flows across the track.

Free practice saw the Team consistently running in the top 10, in the dry, having recorded a best time of 1:46.565 compared to the fastest team, GMT 94, on 1:42.688. Then the rains came for qualifying and the fortunes of the Team dipped. The fastest time set in qualifying has been in the 2:00's and Diablo 666 recorded its fastest time of 2:11.639, on a drying track on Thursday in first qualifying, set by young Alex Cudlin, newly crowned best "Rookie of the yearî putting Diablo 666 36th on the grid.

The treachourous conditions kept Team Mechanics Geoff and Doug Randall busy with qualifying spills by both James Hutchins and Alex Cudlin whilst desperately trying to find some grip to improve the grid position.

Even trying many different combinations of suspension settings and tyre choices did not solve the total lack of grip - and whereas Bridgestone and Dunlop runners seemed to have an excellent wet set up but the majority of the Pirelli runners also seemed to be struggling with a tyre that would work on the treacherous track conditions.

After the terrible weather of the previous days, Saturday race day started warm, dry and sunny, the Diablo mechanics reverted both bikes back to original base settings and in the warm up session Diablo 666 shook some of the very big teams by ending up in 4th position, with only the Suzuki Works team, Yamaha GMT94 and the French Fuchs Works Kawasaki Team ahead of Diablo 666.

Fastest time was put in by Marko Rohtlaan and has certainly lifted the Team's spirits ahead of the long 24hrs Bol d'Or race. The forecast is rain showers during the early evening, then fog (!) and then reverting to clear weather again!

After the brilliant mornings work by the Diablo 666 riders during warm up, Marko Rohtlaan started the race for the team - and how! Starting from a lowly qualifying position of 36th Marko carved through the field and at the end of the first hour was up to an incredible 12th, recording times consistently in the 1:47 bracket as he had during warm up, so these earlier times were by no means a fluke.

Marko had been catching Warwick Nowland on the Phase 1 No. 3 bike during the end of his stint and handed over to Alex Cudlin, who had been presented with his "Rookie of the Year" award by FIM President Rezso Bulcsu on the starting grid.

Alex soon settled into his race pace and was quickly recording times in the 1:49's and was now out on track with his elder brother, Damian, riding for the Phase 1 Endurance bike No. 3. Alex handed over to James Hutchins who continued the onslaught with laps in 1.47s as well to bring the team up into the top 10.

After further brilliant rides by all three Diablo 666 riders, Marko Rohtlaan, James Hutchins and Alex Cudlin, Diablo 666's season was cut short prematurely.

Five minutes short of six hours and with the team lying in an incredible 7th place in front of Phase 1 and only 19 seconds behind their sister team Bolliger, with Marko Rohtlaan on board, the engine let go. A suspected big end failure, or damaged piston has caused the Team to withdraw from the race.

What promised to be a brilliant finale to Diablo 666's season has unfortunately led to a somewhat disappointed Team to say the least.

However who ever thought racing and particularly World Endurance was easy? With the Bol d'or being the final race of the 2006 World Endurance Series there is always next season to look forward to.
With the later news that Bolliger Kawasaki crashed out of the race in the early hours of the morning as well, there were many glum faces in the joint garage as the equipment and bikes were loaded into the transporters.

The Team would like to thank all its supporters and sponsors and in particular Hanspeter Bolliger for all their assistance during the course of the year and look forward to 2007 where many acquaintances made will be rekindled.

The Team have ended the season in a magnificent 7th in the FIM World Endurance Championship, what has made this even more significant was the Team had three DNF's at Le Mans, Zolder and now at the Bol. What could have been...

"This has been a very tough season, but we have once again upped our game plan and shown that Diablo 666 - a small young amateur but very dedicated team can really achieve some remarkable results - especially this year in lap times and qualifying. Next year with new bikes and another year of experience behind us, I really believe we have a great opportunity to get back on the podium."

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