14 September 2008
Round 5 – Bol d’Or 24hrs Magny Cours France

After 6hrs Diablo 666 forced to retire!

Diabolical news for all Diablo 666 friends and supporters and of course the Team out here in Magny Cours, France. After 6 hours the Team have been forced to retire from the 72nd Bol d’Or here in France. Just after 9:15pm Team principal, Miles Hutchins was forced to withdraw Diablo 666 from the race with only one front and one rear light working. “Purely on safety grounds we could not continue. Sooner or later we would have been forced to stop in any case by the authorities”, commented senior mechanic Geoff Randall.

Diablo 666 had started from 25th on the grid and Michael Weynand had the honour of starting with the traditional endurance start and sprint across the track. As the 55 riders came round at the end of the first lap Michael had already blasted past 3 riders to cross the line in 22nd.

During his first stint, where he was lapping in 1:45’s, he climbed to 20th position and handed over to Alex Cudlin . Within 3 laps Alex had climbed to 17th and depending on the fuel stops of other teams for the next hour Diablo 666’s position ranged from 16th to 22nd. Alex had consistently been lapping in the 1:57’s.

After just under two hours Alex handed over to James Hutchins as the skies became darker and darker and massive rain clouds formed overhead. Would it rain after what had been a beautiful start to the race with clear blue, cloudless skies? Only time would tell. This might well play into Diablo’s hands as all three riders love riding in the wet.

At the end of James’ run and at the end of each of the Diablo 666’s riders first stints the Team were lying in 22nd place but on the same lap as some ten other teams. There was still a very long way to go...

The race at this stage was being led by once again the No. 1 SERT works Suzuki Team followed closely by No. 94, the GMT 94 Yamaha and the works Kawasaki bike No. 16.

Diablo’s sister team, Bolliger Kawasaki were lying in an excellent 7th place just one lap behind the leading trio.

Once Michael was back on the bike he straight away got the Diablo 666 Kawasaki back into the 1:45’s. It was now though looking very bleak outside and the temperature was noticeably colder as night began to close in.

Sure enough dead on five it started to rain and Diablo 666 pitted for rain tyres. However, it was discovered that an electrical fault had caused a front light to short so the bike was sent out with only one front light operating. For safety reasons obviously both front lights are necessary to be working and on the next stop the bike was brought into the garage to see if the fault could be found. After five minutes no such luck and out once again the bike was sent out with only one front and one rear light working!

After six and a half hours the weather was getting worse and again the bike was brought into the pit to see if the offending light could be fixed. Unfortunately this was not the case and Team Principal Miles Hutchins had to take the only choice open to him and to withdraw the Team from the race on safety grounds. Lying in 24th place after the two stops, a further lengthy stop to trace the fault would have only meant dropping still further down the field with little chance of getting back into the points.

If the other remaining light had failed whilst out on track the consequences for the rider could have been dire! As it was shortly after withdrawing there was an unbelievable downpour which caught out a number of the teams out and crashes were now becoming widespread!

The mood in the Team understandably was sombre. The next and final round of the 2008 World Endurance Championship will be held on 10th November 2008 in Doha, Qatar.

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