After a tough weekend at the Bol’dor 24 Hour World Endurance Championships in France, Taree’s, Alex
Cudlin is licking his wounds and hoping that the first round of the series isn’t indicative of the rest of the
championship in 2011. Technical issues hindered him all weekend, and the team seemed to be plagued
with rotten luck right from the first qualifying session.

The current number one Superstock team arrived in France, ready to continue their winning form from
last season and hoped to create an early lead in the 2011 series.

Alex was teamed up with two new riders for 2011, Qataris Nasser Al Maiki and Rashid Al Mannai, who
would be sharing the riding duties in Team QERT (Qatar Endurance Racing Team) for the grueling 24
hour race, arguably one of the most difficult of the season.

Alex arrived at the track, hoping the team would have a smooth run in the lead up to the race, however
things didn’t go quite as planned for the young Australian.

Rule changes regarding the qualifying process in 2011 meant that the average of the 3 rider’s fastest
times during qualifying would be calculated, determining the team’s grid position for the start of the
race. Unfortunately, some technical issues with the bike during qualifying meant that the team was
going to have to be content to start from 13th position in the Superstock Class. Alex was able to get in
some fast laps during qualifying, but not enough to start the team any closer to the front of the pack.

Being the fastest rider in his team, Alex was elected to start the 24 hour race. He had more experience
with the Le Mans type starts that are part and parcel of endurance racing and he had a good chance of
moving quickly through the field in order to gain some much needed ground right from the start of the
race.

At 3pm Saturday afternoon the French flag was raised and the 75th Bol Dor 24 Hour was underway. Alex
wasted no time and on the first lap climbed from 13th to 2nd position in the Superstock group.

Alex was then locked into a 5 way battle for the lead with the other Superstock teams. At the end of the
hour Alex handed the bike to his Qatari team mate and waited for his next rotor.

Things were looking good for team QERT and by the 3rd hour they had settled into a comfortable 5th
place. Alex climbed aboard for his 2nd stint on the bike and as he was rejoining the race, immediately
felt a problem with the left hand grip. Alex continued riding, even though the grip was coming loose, as
he knew the team couldn’t waste valuable time on extra pitstops. By the time he pitted an hour later,
the whole grip had almost come off completely and the mechanics had to repair the problem, costing
the team precious time.

Returning to the race, Alex and team QERT then began their climb back up through the field, regaining
some ground to be in 3rd position, battling for a podium position with the BMW 13 team and Kawasaki
63 team.

It was close racing throughout the long hours of the night, and by the 21st hour mark, QERT was in 3rd
position, leading a rival team by just one lap, when disaster struck. At the halfway point on the track,
with Nassar Al Maiki in the saddle, the bike came to a complete stop. Unable to start the bike, the Qatari
rider was forced to push the bike a lengthy 1.8 kilometres back to the QERT pit box. The team was now
20 laps down on the leaders, and had regressed back to 10th position in the field. The QERT pit crew then
worked tirelessly to find the small electrical fault in the fueling system that had caused the problem, and
Alex was back out on the track for another riding stint.

With just 2 hours remaining in the race, Cudlin knew that time was fast running out, and he had to try
and improve the team’s position in the little time that they had left. In about the 4th lap of his rotor, Alex
was shocked when his fuel tank became dislodged from the bike, causing him to crash heavily onto the
track. Alex quickly remounted the bike but with no fuel tank he had no other option but to push the bike
all the way back to the pits.

The QERT team again jumped into overdrive and repaired the bike with little still remaining till the finish.
The team rallied under the pressure and continued with the race, with Alex bringing the bike home and
taking the chequered flag in 11th position.

"I’m so glad that race has finished” said an exhausted Cudlin. “Any 24 hour race is tough, but when you
have mechanical failures on the bike that cost you much needed time and energy, it makes it doubly
hard for the riders and mechanics alike. It’s so disappointing to have gotten so far, to almost lose the
whole race just 2 hours from the finish. Luckily were able to rally at the end, and regain some of the
ground we had lost. At least we finished, which is definitely a plus. Lots of teams didn’t .”

Cudlin came into this racing season on a high, after a successful year in 2010, and also recently winning
the Qatari Championship just a few weeks ago.

“Racing can be fun, but it can also be very cruel as well” said Cudlin philosophically. Cudlin survived his
crash, but is hoping that it will be the last for the season.

“The team will now regroup and work on the problems we encountered on the weekend and how best
to overcome them so that they don’t reoccur during the rest of the race season”.

Alex will now fly back to Australia for a 2 week break before he returns to Qatar for the final round of
the 2011 Qatar International Road Racing Championship, which Alex secured just 2 weeks ago.