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HANNspree Ten Kate Honda >> Rea goes 1-2 at the Ring

September 05 2010

Ten Kate Racing - Nieuwsbrief

Jonathan Rea enjoyed a race win, a second place finish and set a new lap record in today’s two 11th round World Superbike championship races at Nurburgring in Germany. The other race was won by Japan’s Noriyuki Haga.

Starting from the inside of the front row of the grid, Rea was first into the Nuburgring’s tight first corner in race one and, although pressed hard in the early stages by Haga and Spanish rider, Carlos Checa, the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland was never headed.

Race two was not quite so straightforward for Rea, who was fourth on the opening lap before passing series leader Max Biaggi and eventually finishing second to the hard-charging Haga after Checa crashed out on lap 10. However, the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider took the fastest lap in race two to go with the new Nurburgring lap record he had established in the first outing – itself almost a second inside the record he established in the process of winning race two last year.

Rea has now finished in first or second place in the last six World Superbike championship races and heads into the last two rounds of the series boosted by the fact that Imola and Magny-Cours are two of his favourite circuits.

His Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Max Neukirchner, did not enjoy such a fruitful day at his home race. The 27-year-old German was in confident mood following some promising runs during practice  and qualifying. However, he found his race set up working differently than expected with his Pirelli tyres and after crashing out of race one, Neukirchner could only manage a fifteenth place finish in the second.

Jonathan Rea – 1st and 2nd
We were really behind the 8-ball on Friday but did a lot of work that night and came back yesterday with a bike we could challenge with. We managed to turn that into a win in the first race today by makin g a break at the front and controlling the race, so all credit has to go to the crew for turning things around. Nori was really fast in the second race so I’m really happy with a one-two and really think that was probably the maximum points I could get today. It was a lap of two halves really and I while I was weak in the first two splits the last two were really strong. Although I could gain a little bit there, I’d just got dropped a little bit at the start and I lost my rhythm a bit when Checa went down. But I’m really happy – I’m enjoying riding the bike and it’s fun to turn up to a racetrack and just ride the CBR. If you’d offered me a one-two on Friday I would have snapped your hand off.

Max Neukirchner – DNF and 15th
You can imagine I am not very happy. It’s very strange because yesterday I did really well and went faster much more easily – like one and a half seconds faster! Today it just wasn’t possible to get into the corner and turn the bike without the tyre spinning completely. The team has looked at it on the data and they confirm that there was double the amount from yesterday. We changed nothing – just put in new tyres and went. Yesterday afternoon the bike felt perfect and today it was a completely different bike, 5kph slower and almost impossible to ride. It makes me feel like an idiot, especially at my home race and in front of a lot of my fans. It’s a big shame for them. The set up we have now is not bad for me – not perfect, but not bad. It’s just that with the tyres changing, it’s not possible to go in the top ten.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Max’s race results have been quite disappointing after some promising runs he had during the qualifying sessions, so we’ll all try to keep his chin up and see if the last two rounds can bring something half decent. On the positive side we’re seeing a very good, consistent run from Jonathan at the moment – from the last six races he has had only firsts and seconds. The double wasn’t possible this weekend but with results like today we can only be happy and very satisfied. We go now to two of his favourite tracks so we’re looking forward to that. The aim is no longer to protect third in the championship but to attack for second place, which is still very much possible.

2010 World Superbike championship – round 11
Nurburgring, Germany (5.137km – 20 laps) – results

Race one:
1. Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 38’42.460s
2. Carlos Checa (ESP) Ducati +1.126s
3. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha +10.006s
4. Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +10.716s
DNF. Max Neukirchner (GER) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda

Race two:
1. Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati 38’ 43.565s
2. Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +3.061s
3. Leon Haslam (GBR) Suzuki +8.060s
4. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha +8.457s
15. Max Neukirchner (GER) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda

Championship points after 11 of 13 rounds:
1 Biaggi 397, 2 Haslam 339, 3 Rea 288, 4 Checa 224, 5 Crutchlow 217, 6 Haga 177, 7 Toseland 187, 8 Guintoli 169, 9 Leon Camier 164, 10 Michel Fabrizio 160

Next round: Imola, Italy – 24-26 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 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