WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P101
Briefly...
them up a bit as well. We have also
been dropping a bit of weight here
and there, getting rid of excess bits
on the bike. The bike was a bit heavy
at the start of the year. We have not
really been seeing the benefits of the
electronics yet, but I think there will
be benefits."
Eugene Laverty joked that he would
try to start a race on a used tire at
Portimao, because his bike changes
its character so much when a new
tire is fitted. "In qualifying we could
have race-winning pace, but we are
not helping ourselves because in Su-
perpole we cannot use the grip of a
new tire," Laverty said. "In the sec-
ond half of the race we are great. We
have discussed it a few times, start-
ing a race with a used tire. But it is
madness!"
The reason for the close nature of
the qualifying pre-Superpole was
put down by almost every single
rider or engineer as the lack of grip
from the track this year. With a finite
level of grip available, all the top rid-
ers could reach the same level until
the qualifying tires came out in Su-
perpole, when different set-up got
the grip they finally needed and oth-
ers lost some.
Comments from Tom Sykes that the
Portimao track was a little extreme
and that the hills and drops were
slightly over the top were picked
up by his main rivals on Twitter, in a
thread that went on and on before
race day. Joke after joke about tracks
that have hills built up and up, with
Sykes joining in to defend. Asked
about it after Superpole, Sykes said,
cause I enjoy fighting for the vic-
tory too much, but today what we
had to do was kind of limit the
damage. The good thing is some
other riders made mistakes. We
have a bigger lead than when we
arrived here."
His bike simply did not have
the settings to get him to a sec-
ond win of the day, but the Aprilia
racing team were sure fire win-
ners in the late afternoon -with
either Marco Melandri or super-
wet-weather-maestro Sylvain
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