Laverty keeps up pressure in title race
Mon, 31 May 2010
PARKALGAR HONDA’S Eugene Laverty took second place at today’s seventh round of the World Supersport Championship at Miller Motorsports Park in the USA after a tense race-long battle with his two title rivals.
Miguel Praia started and finished in 14th place to score valuable points and will be looking to improve at the next round at Misano in Italy on June 27th. To follow all the team news visit www.parkalgar-honda.com.
Eugene: “There is so much grip around Miller Motorsports Park that the tyre spun on the rim and that happened early in the race, causing me to suffer major vibrations through the front end. It was not comfortable and this is a problem we have had before and we must look for solutions as it cost me the chance to compete with Kenan for the race win. I always knew my Parkalgar Honda would be faster in the second half of the race but towards the end I really had to push to keep Lascorz behind me. I am pretty content with second but would have been disappointed with third – we are fighting for the title and I cannot afford to lose points like that. It’s been solid points today and six behind the title lead is very little. I am looking forward to a couple of weekends off, getting into my training and I’m also going to see Snow Patrol before getting back to business at Misano.”
Miguel: “The race didn’t go exactly to plan. My pace was OK and as expected but I went into the first corner hard trying to overtake a couple of riders and was blocked, causing me to lose around one-second on the opening lap. That was enough to lose the tow on the group in front. My Parkalgar Honda was good and I was happy with it. Now we have time before the next race to recover, rest and also focus on my fitness because when you are racing and travelling as much as we do it is hard to train properly.”
Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “Eugene got a good start but we always knew it would be a tough fight and congratulations to Kenan on winning; we can’t win them all. Overall not a bad race as we have pulled some further points on Lascorz and are only six points behind the lead – Eugene is keeping the pressure on. There will be three riders in this title fight right until the end. We go to Misano next which is a good track for us and we will be giving our all to win there for sure. Today Miguel was not fast enough in the first half of the race. Towards the end he got faster but had to settle for the points. Knowing his potential this is a disappointing race for him but we will all pull together to get him up the results sheet at the next round.”
Race Result
1 54 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 33'45.278 (157,002 kph)
2 50 Laverty E. (IRL) Honda CBR600RR 1.028
3 26 Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1.673
4 7 Davies C. (GBR) Triumph Daytona 675 13.209
5 51 Pirro M. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 14.209
6 37 Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 14.386
7 25 Salom D. (ESP) Triumph Daytona 675 14.603
8 127 Harms R. (DEN) Honda CBR600RR 20.582
9 4 Rea G. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 22.895
10 99 Foret F. (FRA) Kawasaki ZX-6R 27.100
14 117 Praia M. (POR) Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR 41.986
Championship Positions (after seven of 13 rounds)
1: Sofuoglu 142
2: Laverty Parkalgar Honda 136
3: Lascorz 128
4: Davies 84
5: Pirro 58
6: Salom 58
7: Rea 54
8: Harms 51
9: Fujiwara 48
10: Lagrive 44
13: Praia Parkalgar Honda 31
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