CUDLIN’S BATTLE THE ODDS FOR 4TH Taree’s Cudlin brothers, Damian and Alex, finished 4th in the 6 hour endurance race at Oran Park on the weekend, fighting against the odds to reach the finish of the final race ever to be held at the historic motor racing venue. One of the only teams to enter a 2 rider squad, the Dean Evans Revolution R1 suffered a series of set backs during the weekend, the most serious of which threatened to end their race before it even began, however a gritty effort by the entire squad saw the Cudlin’s back in the hunt by race day. “The temperature on Friday caused our engine to overheat which did some damage and lost us track time.” Damian explained. “With no spare engine, I figured we were out of it, but thankfully Dave Caprice from OzQuest stepped in and saved the day. After tracking down the parts we needed, the boys pulled an all nighter and we were back on track for qualifying on Saturday.” The Dean Evans Revolution Team progressed to the Top 10 Superpole session, where Damian, equipped with street compound Pirelli’s, set a time good enough for 3rd on the grid. With the temperature expected to be in the mid 40’s on race day, the team made their final preparations as Damian was chosen to make the Le Mans start. Showing the experience he’s gained in the World Endurance Championship, Damian blasted into the lead and set the pace for the opening part of the race until a fuel leak began hampering his efforts. Despite fuel spraying into his face and chest under breaking, Damian soldiered on and pitted in 2nd at the first round of stops behind the leading team of Davies, Hay and Stauffer. Younger brother Alex took to the controls and set off in pursuit until further leaking prompted an unplanned stop to asses the problem. Dropping down the order as the fault was tracked down, the Cudlin’s continued on regardless, battling with the heat and excess fuel spray for another 2 hours, until eventually being forced to pit again and replace the faulty petrol cap. The extra stops forced the team out of the running for overall honors; however the pair tried desperately to claim the final podium position in the final moments of the race. In a spirited final challenge which saw Damian take over 60 seconds out of the 3rd placed teams lead, the squad would ultimately fall just 36 seconds short and finish a disappointing 4th. “It was certainly a tough day for us but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Everyone worked really hard this weekend and to go home empty handed is pretty disappointing. I even missed out on the $1,000 for fastest lap of the race by a whisker!” Damian quipped. “At the end of the day, we all did our best with what we had and that’s all you can do. It was still great to race at home again and catch up with a lot of familiar faces, and I want to thank all of the gang for working so hard in the trying conditions. It was nice to play a part in Oran Park’s send off, and I hope the 6 hour will be on again next year at another venue”¦ I’d love to get another go at it.” More, from a press release issued by John McGuinness’ publicist: No Eastern magic in Macau for McGuinness Morecambe’s John McGuinness was unable to add to his impressive tally of eight podiums at the Macau Grand Prix when he was forced to retire from Saturday’s 15-lap race. McGuinness, who lined up as part of the Hydrex IGT Honda team, had been running inside the top ten but was unable to advance forward as he would have liked and, struggling for grip, he retired on the seventh lap, his first DNF at the Far East venue since 1999. Practice and qualifying saw unusually cold conditions with temperatures only just reaching double figures and this affected a number of riders as grip levels were a lot lower than normal. Riding the Hydrex machine for the very first time, John started steadily and after placing tenth in free practice, he moved up to eighth in the opening qualifying session. He then recorded his best time of the week in final qualifying, a lap of 2m28.059s seeing him line up in seventh place and on the second row of the grid. With conditions slightly more favourable for Saturday’s afternoon race, the race was initially red flagged due to a false start but at the second attempt it was underway and John completed the first lap in ninth place. He held station here for the next three laps but on lap 5 it was clear all was not well as he dropped back to 14th and on lap seven it was an extremely disappointed John that pulled in to the pits to retire. Speaking later, John said: “It’s never easy jumping on an unfamiliar bike and being immediately competitive and, if I’m being brutally honest, I never found the levels of confidence I needed to be pushing at the front. The conditions all week were really tough and in the 12 years I’ve been coming here I’ve never known it to be so cold and that played a part in my qualifying performance being steady, rather than spectacular. Having said that, my lap times improved throughout and I felt that I could have run the pace to go with the other boys in the race.” “Sadly, it didn’t pan out that way and after a mediocre start, I was fighting really hard just to stay in the top ten, not at all what I was hoping, or expecting, when I came out here. It was a disappointing race for me and I never found my confidence on the bike. The team did a great job and couldn’t have given me any more but I simply couldn’t find any rhythm or pace and by the time I reached lap 7 I took the decision to retire.” John now heads in to the winter break and hopes to have details of his 2010 plans announced soon.