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HANNspree Ten Kate Honda >> Hannspree riders seek Italian success

June 25 2010

Ten Kate Racing - Nieuwsbrief

Jonathan Rea and Max Neukirchner head to the Italian circuit of Misano this weekend (25-27 June) for round eight – the San Marino round – of the 2010 World Superbike championship.

Despite a four-week break from racing since round seven at Miller Motorsports Park in the USA, the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team has been hard at work with their efforts measured in a two-day test at Assen in the Netherlands last week.
Rea, who currently sits in third place in this year’s championship, was quickly up to the race pace that took him to a double win at the Assen round. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland is keen to add to his tally at Misano, the scene of his debut Superbike victory a year ago.

Neukirchner, meanwhile, concentrated his efforts on dialling out handling issues that have affected him in recent rounds. The German, who was also able to match his Assen race pace despite very windy conditions, has his own good form at the 4.226km Misano circuit, winning there in 2008.

Jonathan Rea
I got to Misano a little earlier than normal to soak up some sun, but the weather has been that bad I might as well have stayed at home. It’s improving though, and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in again at the weekend. It’s certainly going to be tough as our main rivals have tested here and have four days on us, but it’s a circuit I like very much and I’ve had some success here, including my first Superbike win last year. The guys have been working hard on our weaknesses back at the workshop and we had a reasonably good test at Assen over two days last week. We needed it though, and we won’t really know how much better the bike is until I start riding it around Misano on Friday. I’ll dig deep again and try to get the best results that I can – a repeat of last year wouldn’t be too bad.

Max Neukirchner
We got through a lot of work at the Assen test last week and we found a way forward. It’s not the complete answer to all the problems we’ve been having but I am looking forward to seeing how the CBR works at Misano this weekend. We know the bike was already working well at Assen but, by putting some more weight on the rear of the bike, I’m hoping we can go better than in recent races. We’ll do some more work on the front forks on Friday to try to get the weight transfer and overall balance feeling better. I like the Misano circuit very much and had a win there in the first race in 2008 and I will try my hardest to get some good results this weekend.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
We’re very much looking forward to going back to Misano, where we had our breakthrough last year, using Ohlins suspension for the first time, and where Jonathan score d his first Superbike win. We will probably begin the weekend playing a bit of catch up because a number of other teams have tested at the circuit recently, but I’m quite sure that we can aim to put some good results in for both riders.

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 market leader in Windscreens, Undertails, Huggers, Flush-Mount Signals, MGP and Megaphone Exhausts, and full-race Bodywork.  Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorships around the world, and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries.  For more information visit: www.hotbodiesracing.com