Clash of the titans at Albacete

A clash of the titans is set to take place at the Albacete Six Hour night-time endurance race this weekend.

The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, reigning World Champions and first and second place finishers at last month’s ‘Le Mans 24 Hours’, will fly the flag for Suzuki with its GSX-R1000 ridden by Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa.

Kawasaki Motor France, third at Le Mans, will themselves be looking for the win with the ZX-10R of Steve Plater, Gwen Giabbani and Julian Mazuecos.

The Qatar Endurance Racing Team will be hoping that the same Kawasaki serves them well in the hands of Jose Luis Cardoso, Ivan Silva and Maschel Al Naimi.

Top Yamaha is Phase One Endurance with Glen Richards and Warwick Nowland but the Spanish Folch Endurance team looks a strong rival, having finished second and third in the last two seasons’ races at Albacete.

Riding this year are: Victor Casas, David Tomas and Alex Martinez.

The biggest surprise, however, could come from a Honda. One of the most eagerly anticipated machines is none other that the CBR1000RR of the Japanese FCC TSR team, ridden by, among others, Takeshi Tsujimura, winner of the 2006 Suzuka Eight Hour.

The only European bike racing at Albacete is the Ducati 1098 of the Spanish RPM Expert Flumotion team, ridden by Dani Ribalta and Pascal Pegaz.

The ‘Albacete Six Hour Night-time Endurance’ will begin at 6pm tomorrow (Saturday, May 5), finishing at around midnight. Twenty-five points are on offer for the winner.