Approaching Racing Spirit in Stock Extreme at the CEV

At the first round of the CEV calendar in Albacete, we had the chance to spend a very pleasant time with the Racing Spirit team.

This small team, a newcomer to the CEV, is not the first to take on a sporting project in motorcycling. Racing Spirit has eight years of racing experience, and over time they have run several projects. At Moto Des they are a true institution and champions: if you ask there about “El Francés”, everyone will know who you mean, since that is what they call their rider, Alexandre Praud.

For a team entering the CEV for the first time, everything brings complications. To start with, there is the matter of sponsors, which is very difficult in our country for any team and practically impossible for one that is new to a category. Then comes the problem of the StockExtreme category itself, which currently suffers from little media coverage. And finally, all the regulations that must be met regarding DORNA. But these are only some of the more superficial problems.

Racing Spirit is a great human group made up of mechanics, a telemetry engineer, a suspension technician, a mechanical engineer and the team manager, besides, obviously, the rider, Alexandre Praud, and all the collaborators who provide support, whose role is vital. They are a very hard-working group that breathes and lives for motorcycles, which is why their enthusiasm shows in everything they do, along with a sense of camaraderie that spreads throughout the paddock.

This season the team is running a Honda CBR 1000 cc, a bike that is not the best for chasing big results, but it is what a small budget can afford. Even so, they are getting everything out of the motorcycle: at Albacete they achieved a commendable eighth place in the race, after starting from nineteenth on the grid.

If some of you wonder why it is not the best motorcycle for this category, it is because its design dates back to 2008 and it is no longer competitive against newer designs.

But they have not only run into problems in competition. This year they were going to field one more bike, another Honda, for Olivier Lamy, but a serious injury in free practice at Albacete brought everything down, to the point of losing several sponsors. It is also worth noting that last weekend they had problems of the kind that leave you wondering whether everything is working against you. They had trouble with a tent they were using for the first time there, and the fairings did not arrive in time or in optimal condition. If you want to know more about these things, you can find them on Facebook and get all the information, and there you can also follow what they do every weekend. You can also follow them on Twitter (@racingspirit_es).

The project for next year looks more than interesting and competitive. There is talk of two high-quality bikes that will allow the team to develop its best version and achieve the results its hard work deserves. And this is not just talk: it is said that a possible new sponsor will facilitate access to this equipment, because they have taken very much into account the current budgets, in contrast to the results obtained, and this is where Racing Spirit shows that it is a team that earns its marks.

This will not be the last time we talk about this team, because they told us so many things that they cannot all fit into one go.