Alex Cudlin has just returned to his home base in England, after what was arguably one of his toughest races ever, competing in the World Endurance Championships. The first race for the 2008 season was the 24 Hour at Le Mans in France.

Alex and the team arrived at the circuit on Tuesday in good spirits, after a successful test was conducted there just 2 weeks ago. The Kawasaki Diablo 666 race bike was in good form, as was new team member, Belgium rider, Michael Weynand, and they were looking forward to the first race of the season.

But things didn’t go precisely to plan.

Diablo were running well all throughout practice and looked forward to qualifying well, as all 3 riders were in good form.

The first day of qualifying had mixed results, as the track conditions changed so much due to the weather. After day one, Diablo Kawasaki was in a disappointing 20th position on the grid. The second day of qualifying was more of the same weather wise, but there were also a few problems that Cudlin had to contend with.

“I had to come in half way through my qualifier with a fueling problem on the bike, so I didn’t get the clear lap that I was after”, said Cudlin, clearly disappointed.

Starting from 21st on the grid, Diablo 666 joined the other 56 motorcycles at the start. With just 2 laps into the race, the French skies turned grey and the clouds opened up. The team had to pit to change from dry race tyres, to wets, which cost them some time. Gradually Diablo 666 climbed from 21st position to 5th position, showing the team’s talent and tenacity. Then disaster struck. Team mate, Weynard, crashed whilst chasing down the 4th placed rider.

After managing to get the bike back to the pits, it was then a job for the team technicians to rebuild the bike as quickly as possible. Diablo rejoined the track in last position, some 6 laps down. The fight back began from there for Alex, James and Michael, who pushed hard throughout the whole race to finally cross the line in 14th position - 12th  in the EWC standings.

“What a tough race” commented Cudlin. “ The crash at the beginning of the race was a real blow to our position, dropping us right back, but the whole team really dug deep to climb our way back into points contention. The weather was tough, the track was tough. It was really hard racing at 3am in the morning, soaking wet, and still trying to maintain constant speeds of up to 300kph. But that’s what makes this type of racing so elite”.

The team will head to Spain for Round 2 of the World Championships in 3 weeks time, where they are hoping to get a strong result.

Alex would also like to take this opportunity to thank his sponsors www.virdatum.co.uk, www.finelinemotorcycles.com.au, www.kapitalmototv.co.uk and www.theaussieshop.co.uk for supplying sleeping Swags to Alex during the race.