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HANNspree Ten Kate Honda>> Rea wins in Nurburgring as Checa enjoys double podium

September 10 2009

Ten Kate Racing - Nieuwsbrief

In today’s 11th round World Superbike championship races at Nurburgring in Germany Jonathan Rea won the second race after placing fourth in the first outing. It was his and the team’s second World Superbike victory of the season and his fifth podium finish. His Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Carlos Checa, also enjoyed a successful day with two third place finishes - the first behind new championship leader, Ben Spies, who was second in race two.

Rea’s first race was affected by technical difficulties after it was red flagged on the second lap. His CBR1000RR Fireblade had not been giving him the correct level of engine braking so he swapped to his number two machine for the restart.
In the second encounter, the 22-year-old Northern Irishman had to fight through to the lead on lap four after a sluggish start. Japan’s Noriyuki Haga fought back and the pair appeared to touch on the exit the first corner, the Ducati rider crashing out. Rea went on to hold off a late challenge from Spies and was even able to break the Nurburgring lap record on his final lap.

Checa meanwhile had to force his way past his team-mate in the opening 20-lapper after starting from eighth on the grid. The Spaniard also put moves on Fabrizio, Biaggi and Corser to grab his third podium of the season. A delighted Checa enjoyed a better start to race two and even led briefly on lap three before settling for third behind Rea and Spies.

Jonathan Rea – 4th and 1st
Apart from the issues with my number one bike in the first part of race one, I had a real problem with turn three and messed up the race. I was a bit disappointed with fourth and was really motivated to ride better in race two. The guys sat me down in between races and gave me an instruction manual on how to win. We changed nothing on the bike and I tried to ride my own race and mind my own business. I got a really bad start and had to get a bit aggressive on people in turn one. Haga ran quite wide and I went on the inside and, although I didn’t see him I felt a big bang and only found out he crashed after the race. I’m sorry for that but don’t think it was my fault and I wouldn’t blame him. I gave it all I could in the race and the package was very strong today so I can’t thank the team enough. I knew I had to make no mistakes on the last lap because Ben was so close, so breaking the lap record then was great. But it’s really a testament to how strong the bike is now and hopefully we can take this momentum on to the next race.

Carlos Checa – 3rd and 3rd
We knew it would be tough going into turn one and in the first race I just tried to catch the top guys. I got up to Johnny and had a good fight with him but right up to the last turn I didn’t know what would happen. I made a really great start to race two – I couldn’t believe it. Got into another battle with Haga early on but I could see Johnny was strong when he passed me. I tried to stay with Ben Spies and lost a few meters in the middle of the race but it was very good to keep third  for me and for the team. It’s been a really satisfying weekend.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
All in all, we’ve had some good results this weekend. Jonathan had some problems to resolve after the race but, to his credit, he solved them himself – we didn’t change anything on the bike. Going back to his number one machine for race two would have helped and our congratulations to him on the win. Also to the whole staff who have worked so hard over the last couple of weeks to keep us where we are. Jonathan’s win in race two maybe overshadowed Carlos’s results, but fair play to him for two brilliant podiums. He has worked and ridden really well this weekend and we’ll now try to improve the bike even more for Imola.

2009 World Superbike championship,
round 11 – Nurburgring, Germany (5.13km, 2 x 20 laps) results:
Race one:
1 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 39’04.818s
2 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati +3.850s
3 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +6.990
4 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +7.109
5 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +12.825
6 Leon Haslam (GBR) Honda +13.243
14 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing +31.188

Race two:
1 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 39’01.561
2 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha +0.786s
3 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +4.993
4 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +8.191
5 Leon Haslam (GBR) Honda +10.907
6 Troy Corser (AUS) BMW +17.152
7 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing +19.743

Championship points after 11 of 14 rounds:
Spies 364, Haga 346, Fabrizio 289, Rea 244, Biaggi 224, Haslam 201, Checa 177, Tom Sykes Yamaha 165, Shane Byrne Ducati 134, Kiyonari 130.

Next round: Imola, Italy – 25-27 September
 
HANNspree Ten Kate Honda is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens and bodywork on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes, and is the North American distribution of KR Tuned performance parts. Hotbodies Racing is the market leader in Undertails, Huggers, Windscreens, Flush-Mount Signals, Megaphone Exhausts and full-race Bodywork. Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorship around the world and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries. For more information visit: www.HOTBODIESRACING.com.