Nowland And Cudlin Ready For Easter Parade
The opening round of the 2006 Endurance World Championship will be held at the heavily revamped Assen circuit on Easter Monday (April 17), featuring the same two Australian ‘suspects’ as last year – Yamaha-supported teammates Warwick Nowland and Damian Cudlin.
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 The opening round of the 2006 Endurance World Championship will be held at the heavily revamped Assen circuit on Easter Monday (April 17), featuring the same two Australian ‘suspects’ as last year – Yamaha-supported teammates Warwick Nowland and Damian Cudlin. The duo will again ride for Yamaha Phase One Endurance, which also boasts Swedish rider Christer Minin in its three-rider battery. Phase One already has three world titles (1993, 2000, and 2003) to its credit, although the last few years have tested the dogged British-based outfit’s resolve. But now, with increased backing from Yamaha and Dunlop in particular, Phase One is confident that it will be able to take the battle right up to reigning world champion, Suzuki Castrol (Vincent Philippe, Matthieu and Keiichi Kitagawa). Suzuki Castrol won last year’s Assen opener, before going on to win three of the remaining four rounds – only the ultra-competitive, Honda-dominated Suzuka 8 Hours eluded the team. Meanwhile, Phase One, a 21-year veteran of the world endurance circus, was fourth at the pre-remodelled Assen in 2005, which was the same position it finished in the championship behind Bolliger Team Switzerland and Yamaha Austria. Nowland, already a two-time (2000 and 2002) world endurance champion, knows that he’s in a strong position to reach the summit again in 2006 – but it won’t be a case of going through the motions. “This year’s Endurance World Championship will be a strain on every part of the rider’s body - every part,” said 34-year-old Nowland, who won at Assen in 2003. “But not only the riders; the entire team will be pushed to extremes. “I’ve mentioned these statistics before, but they’re worth keeping in mind. 97 hours is the total racing time for the 2006 championship. The 2006 MotoGP World Championship will be approximately 17 hours. The Superbike World Championship will be approximately 20 hours. “Yes, I know endurance teams have three riders, but that still amounts to more than 32 hours of racing for one rider.” This Monday’s race, featuring a signature Le Mans start, will be held over 110 laps of the 4.555km Assen circuit, which now features an extensively modified northern loop. It will be first international motorcycle event to be held on the new layout, followed by MotoGP (June 22-24) and world Superbike (September 1-3) later in the year. The top seven teams from last year’s championship will compete at Assen, as part of the 24 ‘permanent’ outfits which will compete in all seven rounds. Eighteen of those teams will either be Suzuki GSX-R1000 (10) or Yamaha YZF-R1 mounted (eight). In other news, the two most famous long-distance races of all time, the Le Mans and Bol d’Or 24-hour classics, will return to the world endurance calendar in 2006. The races have been exiled from world championship action since 2001. Le Mans will be held the weekend (April 22-23) after Assen, where another Australian will join the fray – Damian Cudlin’s younger sibling Alex, who will ride for the Kawasaki-riding Diablo 666 Bolliger team, which is the current world No. 5. Links Endurance World Championship - http://www.worldendurance.co.uk/ Warwick Nowland - http://www.warwicknowland.com/
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