Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup – Race Two – Jerez,
Spain, March 30th.
A perfect pair of victories for Luis Salom at the first event
of the 2008 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup season at Jerez in
Spain left the opposition struggling. Matching the podium
from Saturday's first race, the 16 year old Spaniard was joined
by 16 year old American JD Beach and 14 year old Scot Deane
Brown.
His Royal Highness King Juan Carlos of Spain had taken the
time to meet all the riders and mechanics before the start
making it a very special event for the teenagers. At the other
end of the event is was ex 125 and 250 World Champion Dani
Pedrosa who presented the winners trophy to Salom.
Though the winning margin for Sunday's 15 lapper was not
quite the same as Saturday Salom was never headed and only
troubled at all when he made an unforced error with a lap
and a half to go. He clipped the grass dramatically giving
pursuer JD a hope that the race was not over. “I really
cursed myself for that,” said Salom after receiving
the winner's trophy from Spanish Grand Prix MotoGP winner
Pedrosa. “I just told myself to calm down and concentrate.
Luckily I got away with it and of course I am thrilled with
the two race wins.”
“It has been a perfect weekend. I knew that I had a
good chance here because testing had gone well and I like
the track but it does not get any better than this. Obviously
after the first race I was confident but with racing you never
know. And that is the way I am thinking about the next race.
Estoril is a very different track and I think it will be closer
racing.”
After tailing the Spaniard by almost 10 seconds in Saturday's
race JD Beach was not going to allow that to happen again
and chased hard. With him from lap one was 13 year old Japanese
Daijiro Hiura and the trio soon opened up an advantage over
a superb 4th place battle. An 8 rider contest was headed by
Czech 14 year old Jakub Kornfeil and 15 year old Spaniard
Daniel Ruiz.
Eventually Kornfeil and Ruiz, contesting only their second
Rookie race, were overcome by the more experienced Brown and
Fagerhaug who were making up for mediocre starts. It was a
superb race long battle for 4th that became a contest for
3rd when Hiura slowed dramatically with a lap to go after
losing the end of his gear-change lever. Hiura struggled over
the line 5th behind Fagerhaug but ahead of 15 year old Frenchman
Nelson Major.
Frustration for Hiura but all smiles for Beach who received
the second place trophy from Spanish GP 250 winner, Red Bull
KTM rider Mika Kallio. “That was a lot of fun,”
said Beach. “The bike was good and I really tried to
stay with Salom. I didn't make such a good job of it yesterday
and I really went into this race determined to do better.
I thought I could do it but I just made a few small mistakes
and he got away from me.”
“Then I just concentrated on putting together consistent
laps all the way to the finish,” said Beach who then
got a real boost when Salom ran off the kerb and into the
grass. “I came round the corner and there was this big
cloud of dust and I realised what had happened. I tried to
push then and see if I could get him but then I made a small
mistake and realised it wasn't going to happen. I knew that
3rd place was quite a way back and settled for 2nd.”
“I've just got to sort those starts out,” said
third man Brown. “I just made a mess of it again and
gave myself a lot of work to do. I worked with Sturla on get
through the guys. We were tapping each other on the leg and
telling each other to work together. No use in fighting each
other because we knew that together we could get past the
other guys.”
“Then we had a big piece of luck on the last lap as
Daijiro had bike problems and suddenly he came back to us
and I got third again. Not a bad weekend.”
Fagerhaug also cursed himself. “I've got to make better
starts. Even more than that I lost a few places early on so
I had a lot of hard work to catch up. It was working out OK
with Deane, we got past a lot of guys and I had a plan to
pass him at the last corner. It didn't work though because
I lost a bit of ground to him through the fast corners and
just wasn't close enough to make it all up on the brakes into
the last corner.”
“It's not too bad, concluded the Norwegian. “Some
good points from the first two races and the next race is
Estoril and I'm looking forward to that very much.”
Fagerhaug was fastest in the final of the pre season tests
there a week ago. The third of the 10 race season is at Estoril
in Portugal on April 12th.
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