CEV Race Diary: Friday at Racing Spirit

Friday race days at the CEV are days of intense work, but at certain times there is nothing to do but wait. All day Thursday, when the teams arrive, they have to carry out the hardest work and the least related to the races themselves.

They have to set up the tents, the garage, the bike, and leave everything in order to comply with the organisation’s regulations, in this case Dorna.

Dorna is a very demanding organisation, to the point that everything has to be spotless, which is complicated when working with grease, fuel, tyres and oils. Even so, everything is very professional and done with the utmost care.

Getting down to business, as far as Friday’s practice sessions are concerned, we start with the free practice 1, where the riders have to re-learn the track and find those reference points.

At Racing Spirit, mechanic Roberto Fuentecilla tunes the bike, fits the fairings, puts on the tyre warmers, adjusts the tyre pressures… He leaves everything ready so that when Alex Praud arrives he can get on his bike and do his part.

After this first session of practice, the telemetry is downloaded and studied. During a long session, Alex and Sergio Pastrana (the team’s telemetry engineer) review where more can be extracted and where to sacrifice corner entry to exit faster.

Meanwhile, Roberto removes the fairings so that, as soon as he is told what changes need to be made, he can quickly work on the bike so that everything is ready for the second session.

Now, in the second session things get more serious. We head to the pit-lane spot and prepare the board to show laps and times, so that Alex can see his progress. Twelve laps were chosen this time to test the tyre for the race. The excessive heat makes it impossible to improve the times much compared to the morning.

After practice it’s time to eat and recover strength to keep working in the afternoon. The CEV never stops, and it’s rare for the team to go to bed at a reasonable hour. The workload is heavy and the hours fly by: fairings have to be touched up and cleaned, whatever has been found needs adjusting to improve for Saturday, and the organisation’s scrutineering has to be passed.

None of this would be possible without the management of Alfonso García, the help of his wife Susana Bazan, and the parents of the rider himself, Jack and Martina.

Photos | David Gómez