 Photo's by www.reygondeau.com 22 Year old Australian Alex Cudlin’s luckless run has continued in the 2009 World Endurance championships. Taking on the world’s best at round 2, held in Oschersleben Germany, Alex and the Phase One Yamaha team were hopeful of a strong result. After the disappointment of not scoring any points in the first round of the World championships, due to a mechanical failure on the bike, the Phase One Yamaha team was eager to redeem themselves and set their Championship hopes alive. After the first practice sessions in Germany, they were one of the leading teams, setting some strong lap times with their team line up of brothers, Alex and Damian Cudlin, alongside Majorcan, Pedro Vallcaneras. After a superb super pole lap from Damian, Phase One lined up on the grid in 5th position, with Damian taking the honour of starting duties for the Oschersleben 8 Hour race. At 2pm the national flag was raised and 38 starters set off at a perilous pace, all trying to achieve the top spot in the field, but it was Phase One Yamaha with Damian aboard, who quickly jumped to the lead and mounted a strong attack on its rivals.
Damian was setting a red hot pace out in front and none of the other teams could match his speed. He increased his lead up to a 5 second gap, and while he was entering the final turn on lap 8, he lost the front of his motorcycle and crashed heavily, relinquishing the number one position. Damian quickly remounted the bike and reentered the pits for some much needed repairs to the bike. As soon as Damian was back in the pits, the Phase One pit crew rallied around, changing all of the bike’s fairings and other damaged components, in astonishing time. Damian, being uninjured, remounted the bike and left the pits again, in a bid to make up for lost time, reentering the circuit in last position. The team was now 3 laps down. The three riders then took their respective turns on the bike, putting in an astonishing effort to climb back up through the leader board, and by the 4th hour had worked their way back up to 6th position, lapping faster than those in front of them. As each lap went by the Phase One Yamaha climbed steadily until another problem reared its ugly head. Alex had just finished his stint, handing the bike over to brother, Damian, in their scheduled pit stop, but as Damian started to leave pit lane, the bike suddenly lost all power and completely stopped. The team frantically tried to find the problem, changing the ignition switch and fuses, and finally replaced what appeared to be a faulty battery. During the repair, the team lost another 6 laps, placing them once again at the rear of the pack. They refocused their efforts with a strong attack and climbed steadily back up to 16th position. With just 2.3 hours remaining in the race, they were hopeful of gaining at least some points in the Championship, but luck just wasn’t on their side, with Majorcan, Pedro Vallcaneras, crashing heavily shortly after, losing the front end of the bike, causing an enormous amount of damage. Pedro was able to remount the bike and limp back to the pits, but the damage was too substantial and the team had to withdraw from the race. “What can I say? It just wasn’t our day. It’s just one of those things I suppose, but it’s really disappointing, because I believed we had a good chance of achieving a podium finish” commented Alex. “It would have been really special if we could have had a good finish, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. The positive thing was that we showed the larger teams that we are definitely a threat with our rider line up, and Damian and Pedro aren’t seriously hurt after their crashes and will be fit for the next race.” The World Championship standings aren’t looking good for Cudlin or the Phase One Yamaha Team, after finishing with no points thus far from the 2 rounds of the championship already run. With only a 6 round series, the chances of a big finish this year are slowly fading away. The Phase One Yamaha team will head to Spain in Albacete in 4 weeks time for round 3 of the World Endurance Championships, in a bid to regain the results that the riders and team alike deserve. “Things may be tough points wise, but we are simply more determined to do well at the next round. We will achieve a podium finish at Albacete”, said an upbeat Cudlin. “Watch this spot!”  Damo and Alex getting ready for the start  Phase One Yamaha Team |
