Temperatures are expected to reach over 90 degrees as 57 teams start the fifteenth running of the 24 Hours of the Circuit of Catalunya, the classic Spanish endurance international that continues the long tradition of the classic 24 Hours of Montjuic which was discontinued for safety reasons after the 1986 event. This will be the eighth running of the Barcelona marathon on the full 2.938 mile Grand Prix track and, after seven events held on the long circuit, two teams, Folch Yamaha from Reus and Suzuki Catalá from Barcelona are tied with three wins apiece. Last year’s race was taken by the Cop de Gas BQR Honda team after the Folch and Catalá teams had mechanical problems. This year there is a surprise team on the pole, the Floreal Ducati team running a very fast, World Superbike spec. Ducati 1098. The 1198cc twin actually passed the fastest of the fours at the end of the long straight, and the bike, ridden by three top Spanish Formula Extreme stars, Javier del Amor, Ivan Silva and Victor Carrasco, achieved an average time of 1´48.761. Second was the Folch (Dani Ribalta, Pedro Vallcanera and three-times 24 Hours winner and former GP 250 rider David Tomás) team which is a competing in the World Endurance Championship with an average of 1´49.891. Suzuki Catala is taking advantage of the new rules that allow four riders and was third quickest on average, led by Kenny Noyes, who turned a fastest lap of 1´49.375. His time averaged with those of team mates Diego Lozano, David Bonache and Adriá Bonastre was 1´50.778. Team owner Edward Catalá explained the tactic, “We will adjust the rider rotation as the race develops, but we want to be sure that Kenny is able to run the one hour stints. He just had compartment syndrome operation to his right arm eight days ago and as far as Dr. Xavier Mir is concerned this is new territory. Many riders have ridden 45 minute races within ten days of the operation, but no one has tried an endurance race so soon after the surgery.” This is the second outing for the Suzuka Catalá endurance team. With Noyes and Bernat Martinez the team pulled of an upset at the Albacete round of the World Endurance Championship, finishing second and beaten only by the factory SERT Suzuki endurance team. (Martinez is out with a shoulder injury.) The big question this morning as teams went out for their warm up was whether the Ducati would be able to survive the pace that saw all three riders running in the 1´49s. Only two other riders were in the 49´s (Noyes and Vallcanera), but the race is expected to be run in the 50s and 51s.