Foggy PETRONAS Racing enter the home straight
 Foggy
PETRONAS Racing enter the home straight of their five-year
existence knowing that points will be at a premium in the
closing stages of the Superbike World Championship.
The 2006 season ends with four quickfire rounds over six
weeks for riders Steve Martin and Craig Jones, starting with
round nine at the Dutch circuit of Assen this weekend.
The track is familiar territory for team owner Carl Fogarty,
who won 12 of his 16 World Superbike races at the venue, and
during a recent PR exercise he was one of the few riders to
have tested the new lay-out of the track, which has undergone
major plastic surgery since last year.
Gone is the fast and banked Northern Loop, in a drive to
make the circuit shorter and more spectator-friendly. But
Carl believes that this has been at the expense of the track’s
unique appeal to riders.
He said: “In my opinion they have chopped the best
bit off. I loved the fast, sweeping, banked corners. Some
parts are still the same and the most important thing is that
it remains safe. I’m not sure how it will affect the
performance of our bike, because we are always down on power
at some sections of all the circuits. But the weather forecast
does not look too good and that might help level things out,
and we have not had a wet race during the whole of the project
so we are due a bit of luck.”
Steve said: “It is going to be a tough weekend, and
a tough finale to the season. However the weather forecast
is not good and I actually hope it rains. The last time we
rode in the wet was the first session at Silverstone and I
was up there. Our bike is now revving higher so it will not
be easy to ride in the wet, but it might give us our best
chance. I don’t think the new lay-out of the circuit
is going to make too much difference as the standard of the
riders is so high that everyone will have adapted after two
or three laps.”
Craig said: “I have only ridden the short circuit three
years ago and it has changed twice since then. I think it
will help that everyone is starting from scratch on the new
lay-out. It is still a flowing circuit and I like flowing
circuits so I am looking forward to the weekend. It’s
important to show that I am making progress at every round
because I want to stay in World Superbikes next year. I am
getting more experience every time I ride and feel as though
I am improving all the time.”
FPR’s five-year deal with Malaysian petroleum giants
PETRONAS runs out at the end of this season and Carl’s
team is currently closing in on finding new sponsors for 2007
and beyond.
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