Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/334712
IN THE WIND P24 ably less than I had on the first two laps." Smage got off to a much bet- ter start on Sunday, dropping just seven points for the lap, com- pared to 21 for Matejicek and 25 for Roper. On lap two, Smage upped his game even more, dropping just a single point for the entire lap. Matejicek completed lap two with a loss of 17 points, while Roper held his third place slot with a 25-point lap. In the final moments of the event, however, the last four sec- tions of the final loop, Smage lost his focus and dropped 10 points, more than he had all of the rest of the day. However, his 19-point total for the day was more than enough to claim his sixth win of the series, beating out Matejicek by 41 points. "I felt like I struggled a little in these conditions, it's not what I've been riding all year," said Smage. Matejicek finished out the day with 60 points for second, with Roper grabbing third with 81 points. Bolopue (91) and Blanc-Gon- net (119) rounded out the top five. The Expert class saw a new winner for 2014 with Florida rider Alex Niederer getting the win on Saturday over Beta USA team- mate Ray Peters and Sherco USA's Andrew Putt. Niederer helped his cause with an excel- lent first lap on Saturday, and then held on over the last two laps despite suffering fatigue from the extraordinarily rugged conditions to take the win by 10 points over Peters, with Putt finishing third another four points back. Putt came back strong to take Sunday's win, holding off a last- lap charge by Peters to claim his third win of the series. Peters was second on Sunday with Satur- day's winner, Niederer, finishing third. After six rounds, Putt holds a one-point advantage over Peters (160-161) in the overall Expert standings, with Niederer in third with 132. Shan Moore SUZUKI TESTS AGAIN T he Suzuki MotoGP test team completed a test at the Catalunya circuit in Spain last week – one day with the rest of the MotoGP teams and the oth- ers in a private test session to evaluate several new revisions to the development 2015 Suzuki machine that included a new-specification engine, plus elec- tronic ignition and chassis revisions. Test rider Randy de Puniet put in his fastest lap on the opening day with a time of 1:43.683 (Marc Marquez's best lap in his test on Monday was a 1:41.184). Over the three days, he completed 200 laps of the track. "It was not such an easy period as we had a lot of bad luck after Sepang with many rainy days at other tests," de Puniet said. "But it was important to be here with all the other MotoGP riders to see our potential; we still have to continue to work on the electronics-side to improve our performances. We tested many different things with electronic-maps, on engine-specifications and with the chassis also. I had a better feeling with some of the solutions and we found some good direction here. We still have many days of testing remaining this year and we have time to make further developments." Randy de Puniet and the Suzuki MotoGP test team were busy in Spain last week.