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Ten Kate Honda>> Kiyonari takes positives from Imola experience

October 01 2009

Ten Kate Racing - Nieuwsbrief

Despite a crash in race two of the World Superbike championship 12th round at Imola in Italy today, Ten Kate Honda Racing’s Ryuichi Kiyonari is in positive mood heading to next weekend’s penultimate outing at Magny-Cours in France. The Japanese ace struggled initially in Friday practice, but found a step forward during qualifying and finished in a strong fifth place in the first of today’s two 21-lap outings at the historic 4.93km Imola circuit.

Kiyonari hoped for a similar performance in the second outing, but crashed on lap nine before remounting to take 17th place at the flag. Today’s two races were won by factory Ducati pairing, Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio, with Haga now holding a slender three-point championship lead over Ben Spies.

Ryuichi Kiyonari – 5th and 17th
Race one was very positive for me and it felt really good to be doing quick lap times at the end of the race, as well as at the beginning. Fifth was a good result for me from where I started on the grid. In race two, I think I got a little bit too excited. I could see Ben Spies at the back of the leading group and I pushed a little too hard trying to catch him. I had no problems before I crashed but I lost a bit of confidence when I got the bike going again. If I had finished where I should have finished race two, it would have been a really positive weekend.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Kiyonari-san has been making quiet progress since Brno, which was the first time he began to get to grips with the new Ohlins suspension. He found a good setting here with which he was comfortable, which allowed him to push hard from his grid position of 14th. In race one he showed some real determination to pass Leon Haslam for fifth at the final corner but then he showed perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm to chase the leaders in race two. We’re looking forward to the last two rounds and Kiyo showing us what he can do.
 
2009 World Superbike championship, round 12 – Imola, Italy (4.93kmkm, 2 x 21 laps) results:
Race one:
1 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati 38’32.199s
2 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +2.074s
3 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Ducati +2.190
4 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha +5.438
5 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing +14.470
6 Leon Haslam (GBR) Honda +14.685
7 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +26.822

Race two:
1 Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Ducati 38’23.143s
2 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati +3.592s
3 Marco Simoncelli (ITA) Aprilia +6.510
4 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +7.445
5 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha +14.678
6 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +16.396
10 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +30.203
17 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing +1’01.823

Championship points after 12 of 14 rounds:
Haga 391, Spies 388, Fabrizio 330, Rea 263, Biaggi 257, Haslam 219, Checa 183.

Next round: Magny-Cours, France – 2nd-4th October

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.