Report on Round Five of the Spanish 1000cc Formula Extreme Championship at Albacete, Spain, October 9 2005. Reus, Tarragona, Spain Noyes Seventh in Spanish FX Despite Broken Clutch American Kenny Noyes took his third consecutive seventh place in the Spanish National 1000cc Formula Extreme Championship on his Folch Yamaha R1, this time at Albacete in round five of the seven-round series. On this occasion, however, he and his team left Albacete certain that only a broken slipper clutch kept him out of the scrap at the front which was won by former 500/MotoGP rider Jose David de Gea (BQR Honda CBR1000RR) ahead of former Spanish Supersport champion, Javier del Amor (LaGlisse Yamaha R1) and former 250 GP rider and Spanish 250 Champion David Tomas (BQR Honda CBR1000RR), the three separated at the flag by only .3 of a second. Kenny had his best ever qualifying, taking sixth fastest time, and was especially confident on raceday after a change to front fork settings in the warm-up improved the Yamaha’s handling under hard braking. But at the start the slipper clutch failed with a bang, sending the former dirt tracker wheeling off the line. “I thought I had a real good start off the second row and then it broke and dumped all the power in at once. But it got worse in turn one when I had absolutely no engine braking. Coming out of the corners the clutch was slipping if I got on it real hard. The spooky part was that sometimes going into the corner free-wheeling the clutch would suddenly come back in, like I had hooked a gear. I had to pull in the clutch at the same time I got on the brakes in case it happened again. It was scary and I even thought of coming in on lap two, but I found a way to ride it. I had to change my lines and ride the front very hard into the corners. But I really learned a lot this weekend. This was the first time I could stay with De Gea, Tomas, Silva and del Amor and, thanks to the help we got from Michelin and Öhlins, we finally understand the traction problem that has been dogging us all year. We know what to do now to make the R1 even better,” said Kenny. “It’s funny,” said Noyes. “I was happy to finish seventh in Catalunya. I was disappointed to finish seventh in Jerez when I had a set-up problem but finishing seventh here was just awful. It felt like being last. I’m tired of seventh now.” Noyes is now 17 points back of Carmelo Morales who holds sixth in the Spanish Championship which is led by de Gea who holds a 19 points advantage over del Amor. The final two rounds of the Spanish Nationals take place at the GP circuits of Valencia and Jerez on the last two weekends of November. Results round 4 of Spanish 1000cc Formula Extreme Championship 1 Jose David de GEA. Wurth Honda BQR Honda 29:28.246 2 Javier del AMOR, T.Laglisse Yamaha 29:28.442 -0.1 3 David TOMAS,Wurth Honda BQR 29:28.573 -0.3 4 Ivan SILVA, T.Laglisse Yamaha 29:33.845 -5.5 5 Jospe MONGE, Promoracing Yamaha 29:35.010 -6.7 6 Jose Oriol FERNANDEZ, T.Merson Yamaha 29:46.793 -18.5 7 Kenny NOYES, Folch Yamaha 29:47.820 -19.5 8 David GOMEZ,Megabike Kawasaki 29:59 -30.7 9 Juan E. GOMEZ, RPM Expert Suzuki 30:04.345 -36.0 10 Roberto PANDILLA, Saltoki Kawasaki 30:04.465 -36.2 11 Bernat MARTINEZ, Folch Yamaha 30:13.766 -45.5 12 Salvador CABANA, Motorrad Suzuki 30:14.497 -46.2 13 Mario A CARAZO,. Hotelplus Yamaha 30:37.977 -1:09.7 14 Antonio SALOM, Motos Salom Yamaha 30:42.636 -1:14.3 15 Víctor J. CASAS, ZK Pontgrup Suzuki 30:53.574 -1:25.3 32 starters. 25 finishers, 3 riders lapped