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Assen SBK Races, April 17 2011, Warm spring weather and a dry track surface greeted the Superbike riders in Assen today for
their two races. Team Pedercini riders Roberto Rolfo and Mark Aitchison started respectively
from the fifth and the sixth row of the grid, which was primarily due to yesterday’s set up
problems with their bikes.
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April 17 2011 - Assen SBK Races
Warm spring weather and a dry track surface greeted the Superbike riders in Assen today for their two races. Team Pedercini riders Roberto Rolfo and Mark Aitchison started respectively from the fifth and the sixth row of the grid, which was primarily due to yesterday’s set up problems with their bikes. In race one, after a good start, Rolfo crashed during the fourth lap ending his race on the gravel, but fortunately without any physical consequences for the Italian rider. Mark Aitchison made a pretty good start and in the space of a few laps he found a very good race pace and made up a lot of positions. By the end of the race Mark had reached an excellent tenth position. He was the first Kawasaki to cross the line and obtained six points for the championship standing. In race two after only a few laps Aitchison was forced to end his race due to a speed sensor problem while Rolfo, after a good start, found himself part of a small group of three riders fighting for the points zone, but due to a lack of grip in the last two laps, Roberto reached the sixteenth position missing out on the points zone by just one place.
Superbike - Race one: 1) Rea (Honda) - 2) Biaggi (Aprilia) - 3) Checa (Ducati) - 4) Melandri (Yamaha) - 5) Fabrizio (Suzuki) ............10) Aitchison (Kawasaki).......... RET. Rolfo (Kawasaki)
Superbike - Race two: 1) Checa (Ducati) - 2) Biaggi (Aprilia) - 3) Rea (Honda) - 4) Camier (Aprilia) ............ 16) Rolfo (Kawasaki) .......... RET. Aitchison (Kawasaki)
Roberto Rolfo: “Two difficult races for me today. In race one my start was pretty good and I was trying to find a fast race pace, but I lost the front wheel and crashed. I missed out on a good opportunity to take a nice result. For race two we decided to modify my bike’s set up and the bike was working better. Unfortunately once the tyres began to lose grip I was unable to ride as I wanted and so I had to settle for sixteenth place”.
Mark Aitchison: “In our first race today I really enjoyed myself on the bike and managed to enter inside the top ten for the first time. The bike felt good, like other times during the qualifying and practice, so I knew we can make a good result. My team was very happy also for the result which has made all our hard work worthwhile. In the second race during the first laps I experienced a problem with the bike and had to stop as a result. We found that we had a speed sensor problem on the front of the bike and this causing the bike not to run correctly. In any case I have enjoyed my weekend in Assen and I thank my team for all their hard work”.
Team Pedercini rider Bryan Staring rode to fifth place in today’s first round of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup at the Dutch TT circuit. It had been a difficult weekend for Staring after some trying sessions, but today he was able to enjoy himself on the bike and obtain an amazing fifth place finish. Bussolotti’s start was not very fast and in the first laps he lost a lot of positions. With a good race pace and with some fearless overtaking Marco was able to recover positions reaching the fourteenth position and obtaining two points for the championship standing. An unlucky race for Leandro Mercado. The young Argentinian crashed after only three laps when he lost the front wheel through a corner.
Marco Bussolotti: “After making a bad start I found a lot of traffic in the first laps and as a result I lost contact with the fastest riders. Around the middle of the race I began to have a better feeling with my bike and I made up some positions. I was able to make some fast laps and to overtake some riders to reach fourteenth position. I am pretty satisfied with the result even if we still have some set up problems”.
Bryan Staring:“I’m very happy with this result. My start was good but the first three corners were very difficult for me because I started from the left side of the track and the first three corners were right-handers. I tried my hardest to overtake the riders in front of me even though it’s not easy to pass on this track. But today my bike was working very well and as in the practice, I was more comfortable with used tyres and this allowed me to overtake three riders in the last two laps. The team has worked extremely hard to stabilize the bike set up and I’d like to thank them for their help this weekend”.
Leandro Mercado: “What a short race! My start was not so bad, but unfortunately I crashed during the third lap when I lost the front wheel. After this morning’s warm-up, we decided to change something on my bike’s setting and I spent the first few laps of the race getting to grips with my Kawasaki, but I crashed and it was not possible to rejoin the race. Now I’m looking forward to the next race in Monza”.
Superstock 1000 FIM Cup - Race : 1) Giugliano (Ducati) - 2) Petrucci (Ducati) - 3) Barrier (BMW) - 4) Baroni (Ducati) - 5) Staring (Kawasaki) .............14) Bussolotti (Kawasaki) RET.Mercado (Kawasaki)
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