Kawasaki WSB - Aragon, Spain

[MadKaw]

Ups And Downs For Top Ninja ZX-10R Riders
WSBK, Motorland Aragon, Spain, 19 June 2011
Joan Lascorz celebrated the first race meeting at his home circuit of Aragon with a seventh and a fifth place, his best combined points score of the season so far. Joan matched his personal best individual race score of fifth in race two, a 20-lap contest that was held in much warmer conditions than race one. Also well in the mix was fast man in practice and qualifying Tom Sykes, who started from fifth place on the grid and took fifth in race one.

He was to slip off and be unable to restart in race two, but he was pushing hard for his second strong result at the culmination of a race weekend where more progress was made with the set-up and real race performance of the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R.

Chris Vermeulen also found his first race meeting at the impressive new WSBK facility of Motorland Aragon a game of two contrasting halves. He scored 12th in race one despite losing many places in the early laps, then found his race two set-up far from ideal in the much hotter mid afternoon conditions, ending up 14th but still in the points scoring places.

In the championship, Tom is 13th, Lascorz 14th (only three points behind) and Chris is 19th.

After an intense weekend at Aragon the work rate of the official Kawasaki team shows no let-up, as the squad will test with all three riders at Motorland tomorrow, Monday 20th June.

For the Pedercini Team Kawasaki riders, raceday was an opportunity to score more points, with Roby Rolfo 14th then 13th, and Mark Aitchison 15th and 12th.

Brno is the next race venue for all the WSBK classes, with track action held between July 8 and July 10.

Tom Sykes: “Again there are some positives and negatives but I am going to ignore the latter. The positive side is that we have been top five all weekend, and in race one, and in race two I went down but we were still racing in a good position. Unfortunately I went down, but I went down trying. We came away with good levels of performance during a dry weekend, which is another big positive. We will get a test in Aragon to be ready for the Brno race, and we have a lot to test. Maybe too much for one day, so we’ll prioritise things and make it count. Brno is a fantastic circuit that I love and hopefully the new Ninja ZX-10R will work well there as well.”

Joan Lascorz: “I was fifth in race two and the same position I took at Donington. Very good, but I was much closer to the top positions here. We had some laps of testing but not many so this was really a new circuit for me in qualifying, so we did a good job. I like it but it is not easy. My crew chief gave me a good setting for the second race, and persuaded me not to go for the softer rear tyre, so I used the same B tyre in each race. It was a good decision in race two. The tyre was destroyed in race one, more than Tom’s but this race it looks better. We were only five seconds from the podium in race two, and not only me, Tom was also very fast this weekend.”

Chris Vermeulen: “Race one was so bad, got quite a good start but then boxed in on the first lap, and I actually went back to last place. But we passed quite a few of them and our pace was quite good in he middle of the race same as that of the fifth to seventh place guys. I managed to get up to 12th and in the last couple of laps the tyres dropped off, but we still managed to pass Rolfo. In race two our set-up and tyre choice was exactly the same and I had no grip from the start, so I was riding along two seconds a lap slower in the hot conditions. It was frustrating when you know the package under you can do to do it but for some reason we were unable to do it. ”

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Salom Storms The Podium At His Home Race
WSS, Motorland Aragon, Spain, 19 June 2011
David Salom fought back from a poor start to take a career best of third after 18-laps of Aragon, making this his best race finish in his entire WSS career to date. Salom was down in seventh on lap one, from his qualifying spot of second, as his team-mate and pole man Broc Parkes led. By the end of the race Salom had made up ground at a very high pace to take a clear top three, ending up 4.6 seconds behind winner Chaz Davies, with Sam Lowes second.

Parkes was unlucky in the final part of the race, having led and looked comfortable in that position until the mid part of the race. Losing front tyre grip but trying to keep his closest rival Davies behind him, he slid off on lap 16 of 18. Despite trying to get going again he had to retire and no scored.

Despite the disappointment of losing the championship lead to Davies, Parkes is still a strong overall second after six rounds, with another six to go. The best news of the day for the Provec Motocard.com Kawasaki team is that Salom has now propelled himself to third overall, as he makes his own assault on the championship lead.

More good news came along for the battling Lorenzini by Leoni Kawasaki rider Massimo Roccoli, as the Italian posted a season best fourth, and in doing so jumped two places up the championship rankings to eighth. Right behind Salom for much of the race as they made forward progress, Roccoli eased off to make sure he scored points after some difficult early periods in this intense season. Roccoli’s team-mate Vittorio Iannuzzo retired from the race.

David Salom: “We got a podium, which I have been chasing all year, so that is fantastic. But, overall, I cannot say it was the best race it could be because I had problems with the clutch biting point at the start and lost some places. My race pace, I think, was better than the other riders. It was a good race for the team, but I wanted to have more. I think I could have had a first or second. But we took the first podium in Spain, so my first top three is great for the family, friends, my Spanish team, Kawasaki and for the first WSS race at Motorland Aragon.”

Broc Parkes: “It was all going fine at the front, all under control. Then the front tyre felt that it was moving a little bit under me, from about half race distance. I was struggling to control the pace and a couple of times I lost the front. I tried to back down a little bit and then it started to feel OK. I had three laps to go and I knew there were two riders behind me and the gap back to them was pretty much the same. Then I made a mistake and lost the front. Maybe on days like that you should finish and settle for the points in third, or something like that. Anyway, it didn’t work out and I am really upset because it was good points we lost.”

Massimo Roccoli: “Not so bad, a top four and I finished with very good points. I started the season with some bad luck so here, in the last three laps, I thought it was important to just arrive at the finish and take the points. The podium was not important. I am happy for the team and myself as this was a good result for our hard work. I hope the last six races of the year will be more like this one.”