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Ten Kate Honda>> Top ten for Kiyonari at Assen

April 25 2009

Ten Kate Racing - Nieuwsbrief

Ten Kate Racing Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari has a provisional third row grid position for Sunday’s two fourth round World Superbike championship races at Assen in Holland. The Japanese ace fired his Honda Genuine Accessories-backed CBR1000RR around the 4.55km circuit in 1’39.506s for the ninth fastest time.

America’s Ben Spies once again set the pace to take provisional pole position but Kiyonari is less than 0.4s off a front row slot as the top 13 riders are separated by just one second.

His Ten Kate Honda team-mates, Carlos Checa and Jonathan Rea, set the fourth and eighth fastest times respectively, as Kiyonari looks forward to tomorrow’s further qualifying and Superpole sessions to determine the final grid positions for Sunday’s two 22-lap races.

Ryuichi Kiyonari – P9, 1’39.506s
I found it difficult to push the front in some areas today but overall the balance of the bike is good. We may try a softer spring tomorrow but we will have to look at all the data tonight. We only tested two tyre options today, so there is some more work to do there as well. I am a little bit faster than last year, but so is everybody else – I really need to get the hairpin right to get the right acceleration for the back straight.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Yes, it’s been quite a positive day and we have tried some different parts and settings with the bike. The important thing was to improve the performance after Valencia and I think we have started well on the road towards this objective. We will all sit down tonight and study areas of potential improvement with a view to get Kiyo-san higher up the grid for Sunday’s races than he has been so far this season.

2009 World Superbike championship, round four - Assen, Holland
First qualifying, results:
1 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 1’38.747s
2 Jakub Smrz (CZE) Ducati 1’39.055s
3 Yukio Kagayama (JPN) Suzuki 1’39.128s
4 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’39.141s
8 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’39.359s
9 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing 1’39.506s

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.