11 November 2007
Round 6 – Losail Circuit 8hrs Doha, Qatar
The Team had made the decision to make the long journey to Qatar for the inaugural running of the first 8 hrs World Endurance Race at the fantastic Losail Raceway.

After a brilliant qualifying, Diablo 666 would be starting from 7th on the grid after having come to grips with the circuit. The stage was set for an action packed weekend. The Team had one thing on its mind and that was to get a podium finish to end the 2007 very much on a high after some of the lows of the season. After failing to finish the Bol d’Or 24hrs due to gearbox problems, the Team were really looking forward to a good result.

Gary Mason was elected to do the start and at 2pm, the Qatar national flag was raised and the race was under way.

After the first hour, Gary was running at an extremely fast pace and had moved the Diablo 666 Team up into 5th place. Just as Gary handed over to Alex for his first stint, the two leading teams both crashed moving Diablo 666 into 3rd !

Alex then pushed hard and was in a battle with QERT Kawasaki. Our strategy was looking good, we were able to run longer than a lot of the leading teams, it was really looking good for an excellent result.

Alex handed over to James Hutchins lying in 2nd position. Fantastic or what but after 10 more laps disaster struck! James was pushing hard around the back of the circuit when all of a sudden the bike just stopped as in Oschersleben. Sure enough it was the same problem, a blown petrol pump fuse. James had a long push in and after solving the problem we were back in the race only for it do blow again and leading to another long push in. This had dropped the Team down to 27th when Team Principal Miles Hutchins decided wisely to abandon the race on safety grounds.

“What a disappointment, we were running in 3rd and catching 2nd when the fuse blew, I just can’t believe it” added Alex Cudlin. “We had the pace to finish the race on the podium. To have it ripped from us is really heart breaking for the whole Team”.

2007 was very much a difficult season for Diablo 666 Kawasaki. Out of the six rounds to have only finished in the top ten twice due to mechanical problems was a major blow for the Team.

The Team finished 13th in the Championship, much below where the talented team should have finished. Diablo 666 will be looking in 2008 to show the World it can do much better…

< Back to main news page