BMP-ELF-99 TEAM READY FOR ALBACETE The BMP-ELF-99 Racing Team head for this weekend’s 8 Horas Nocturnas De Albacete race in a confident mood, having completed a successful two-day test at the Spanish track just three weeks ago, Damian Cudlin, one of the three riders that rode the BMP-ELF-99 Racing Team CBR1000 to a hard fought 15th place at Le Mans, securing eighth place in the championship standings, shouldered the testing responsibilities over the two days in Albacete. The Australian rider ended the test with a lap time almost two seconds faster than the best race time at the 3.539km Spanish circuit. For this weekend’s Albacete race, the second round of the Endurance World Championship, Cudlin will once again be partnered by four-time World Endurance Champion, Matthieu Lagrive, who was also part of the BMP-ELF-99 team’s rider line up at Le Mans. The third rider at Le Mans, Werner Daemen, will also be at Albacete, but this time in his new role as the BMP-ELF-99 Racing Team’s Sporting Manager. The Belgian rider brings a vast amount of experience to his new role, which will strengthen the team considerably and eliminate some of the problems experienced in the Le Mans race. Circuito de Albacete is located 170km inland from Alicante and was first opened in 1990. The circuit, which features five left-hand and eight right-hand corners, hosted a World Superbike round from 1992 to 1999, but the 8 Horas Nocturnas De Albacete is now the biggest international motorcycle event on the Spanish circuit’s calendar. Damian Cudlin “I’m more confident going into this race than I was going into Le Mans, as we’re better prepared as a team than we’ve ever been. I’m really looking forward to it as we’re heading to Albacete off the back of a really positive test at the circuit and I think we’ll be in a position to spring a few surprises this weekend. We proved in Le Mans that we’re one of the fastest teams out there and, if it hadn’t been for a couple of issues, we’d have finished a lot higher than we did. But, we learnt a lot from Le Mans and that will stand us in good stead this weekend in Albacete. The bike is good, the tyres are good and we know we have a good set-up, so I’d be disappointed if we came away from this weekend with anything less than a podium finish.” Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal “We had a very successful test with Damian at Albacete three weeks ago, so we head into this race confident that the bike and the tyres are both more than capable of a good result this weekend. Damian and Matthieu were consistently the fastest riders on track at Le Mans, so we know they have the pace, but we were let down in that race by a couple of mistakes in the pits, which is why we’ve strengthened this side of the team by bringing in Werner as the Sporting Manager. He will oversee the team’s activities on track and I’m confident that, which his vast amount of experience, we will not have a repeat of the issues that cost us so much time at Le Mans. I am looking forward to a good result by the team this weekend at Albacete, where I think a podium finish is a realistic possibility given our testing performance at the track previously.”