19 April 2008
Round 1 – Le Mans 24hrs, France (Race Report)
Team Diablo 666 Kawasaki arrived at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit this morning for warm up at 10:30 am to again grey overcast skies and a very damp track.

During warm up each of the riders was on top form and as the magic hour of 3 pm approached, start time, the riders became more and more edgy.

Michael Wenend being the fastest rider was to start and right from the start of this famous race things were going to happen and how.

At 2:30pm the sky was blue and the sun was shining. At 2:55 it began to cloud over and at 3pm, Michael made a brilliant start. At the end of the first lap he came round in 14th place. However after 3 laps it began to rain and how!

All the teams were out on slicks and it was just a question of how long riders would stay out.

Michael came in after 5 laps and changed to full wets, refuelled and blasted out of the pits, well at 60kph of course!

When he returned he was in 8th and held that position until lap 24 when disaster, he crashed at a slow speed corner, “It just tucked in on me he commented”.

He was able to push back in but it took about 5 laps worth of time to fix the bike.

At the end of the first hour Diablo 666 were in 44th position and at the time of sending this message the Team are currently in 40th place, 7 laps off the leaders, namely the No. 94 Yamaha.

Other new, Kawasaki France No. 11 crashed out on the first lap, No. 55 National Motos are also out and Yamaha Austria have also crashed out and pushed back into the pits. Its been all go and still another 23 hours to go!

The fight back continues for Diablo 666...

More news as it happens, direct from the circuit.

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