Martin at the double for Foggy PETRONAS Racing at Assen
Steve Martin secured a double points-scoring finish for Foggy
PETRONAS Racing as hazardous conditions made for incident-packed
racing at the ninth round of the Superbike World Championship
at Assen, Holland.
The Australian kept a cool head in atrocious weather during
race one to bring his PETRONAS FP1 safely home in 12th place.
He then went one better with a strong finish to the dry second
race, passing a number of riders in the closing stages to
claim 11th place.
But there was more misfortune for team-mate Craig Jones,
who was a casualty in the chaos of the first lap of the first
race when he punted off track into the gravel. Then, after
a stunning start to race two when he was running in 14th place
after four laps, his engine locked up and he was forced to
pull in.
Former FPR rider Chris Walker enjoyed the ride of his career
to secure a comfortable victory from the back of the grid
in the first race, before Troy Bayliss returned to form to
claim victory in race two.
Steve said: “To be in the points in
both races was excellent. The second race was one of the hardest
of my life. All my passes were through out-breaking and diving
into the corners and I am really happy for everybody that
we are in the points again. Bits were flying off someone’s
bike in front of me at the start so I had to back off. And
it’s no fun heading towards a wet first corner on slick
tyres, with everyone aiming for the dry line! When the other
guys had grip they headed into the distance but when they
started to lose their grip later on I was able to maintain
consistent times and make up some places. I did the best job
I could in the first race as the bike is now pretty hard to
ride in the wet because all the power is made at high revs.
I ran off the track a few times because the rear end was locking
up a bit too easily. With 10 laps to go I could see a big
gap behind me, and lots of guys were crashing, so I knew I
just had to finish the race.”
Craig said: “We had to start at the
back of the grid when a problem prevented me from making the
sighting lap for the first race. For whatever reason I ended
up on the outside and, going into the first corner, there
was so much spray that everyone sat up and I was pushed onto
the grass. I was carrying too much speed to do anything about
it. That was a real shame because I had gone well in the wet
in the morning warm-up session and was confident of scoring
points. I had a great start to race two and was in front of
Steve through the second corner but the bike started to lose
power and then locked up on lap four. I don’t know what
I have to do to deserve a bit of luck at the moment.”
Race two results, Superbike World Championship round
9, Assen, Holland: 1 Bayliss; 2 Pitt +9.342; 3 Nieto
+11.648; 4 Kagayama +12.743; 5 Xaus +12.811; 6 Lanzi +19.845;
7 Barros ++29.241; 8 Laconi +34.085; 9 Toseland +42.113; 10
Fabrizio +51.815; 11 Martin +53.608; 12 Rolfo +56.132; 13
Muggeridge +57.168; 14 Walker +1.01.056; 15 Brookes 1:34.429
Race one results: 1 Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki);
2 Pitt (Yamaha Italia) +4.965; 3 Fabrizio (DFX Treme) +24.130;
4 Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki) +36.968; 5 Abe (Yamaha France) +37.178;
6 Neukirchner (Alstare Engineering Corona Extra) +37.324;
7 Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) +40.930; 8 Rolfo (Ducati SC Carrachi)
+41.857; 9 Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) +53.382; 10
Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) +55.869; 11 Clementi (Team
Pedercini) +1:39.835; 12 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) +1:59.724;
13 Nakatomi (Yamaha France) +one lap; 14 Van Beek (Motoport
Den Bosch) +one lap; 15 Ianuzzo (Celani Team Suzuki Italia)
+five laps
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