16 September 2007
Round 5 – Bol d’Or 24hrs Magny Cours France
After three point scoring finishes on the bounce, 15th in Albacete, 6th in Suzuka and 7th in Oschersleben, Diablo 666 were looking forward to another good points haul to lift them further up the World Endurance Championship table.

The next race is the famous Bol d’Or, held for many years at the famous GP circuit at Magny Cours. After a very good qualifying Diablo 666 would be starting the race in 17th on the grid.

Alex Cudlin would be starting the race again but after only three laps there was already a problem with the Kawasaki’s gearbox. As Alex tried to downshift the box would just not select gears properly. Over the past two years the Team have repeatedly had problems with the gearboxes on their bikes.

After only four hours while still lying in a points scoring position the Diablo 666 Team had to withdraw from the race.

With James Hutchins riding and heading down the fast back straight doing almost 180 miles per hour, it jumped out of gear.

With another 20 hours still to go in the race, Team Principal Miles Hutchins made the decision to with draw from the race. He added, “It just wasn’t safe to continue. It is a big disappointment for the entire Team”.

The real talking point of the race concerned Bolliger Kawasaki. With just 15 minutes left to go, Horst Saiger had brought the Bolliger bike in for a quick splash of fuel to guarantee not running out of fuel. As he left the pits lying in 5th place Horst looped the bike as he opened it up. He totally destroyed the front wheel of the bike which was almost immovable.

Being just out of the pit lane the Bolliger Mechanics were not allowed to help Horst, the pit lane marshalls would not help and being shattered was unable to lift the bike to safely. The team had been running for almost 24 hours in the top 10 but to no avail.

The final race of the year will be run at the impressive Losail Circuit, Qatar on November 3rd 2007. The WEC would be using the circuit for the very first time.

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