VOL. 51 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 7, 2014 P57
I am going to help him [Guintoli]
then in Qatar he can win. Any-
way, I never got a double win for
free. In respect of my sponsors,
I could get both wins today, so
one win should be a good result
for me."
There was even comedy in
the orders to Melandri in each
race, with a smiley symbol on his
pit board, albeit one with a mas-
sive frown. So not a smile at all.
It was followed by a downward
arrow when Melandri continued
at speed, only letting up when he
was good and ready.
Kawasaki had also issued a
curt 'drop one place' to its own
French rider Loris Baz in race
one, but only after Aprilia had
done theirs. Baz only obeyed it
after he had shown the crowd
that he could win the intra-team
contest.
So there was one gain of
points and one loss of points for
Guintoli against Melandri, but
the English-based Frenchman
Briefly...
still up in the air, although the gener-
al consensus is that the Italian com-
pany will leave the series – at least
as an official team.
The Barni Racing Team, running a
Ducati Panigale, will arrive in World
Superbike in 2015 but probably as
a one-rider team and probably with-
out the once much fancied Leon
Haslam. Leandro Mercado, the Su-
perstock rider for Barni in 2014 and
eventual champion, is the most likely
signing.
Magny-Cours featured lots of track-
side X-Lite and Nolan backdrops,
as an official SBK helmet was un-
veiled at this round, as was the all-
new BMW S1000RR after the JR
Racing press conference.
The 3C Ducati squad, normally
running in the IDM Championship,
brought all three of their riders to the
party in France as wildcards, with
Max Neukirchner and Xavier Forres
joined by a rider who knows how to
the throttle. The bike was not really
damaged so I got back on it quickly.
A group of riders had passed me, but
I was faster and had much more con-
fidence anyway. I just concentrated
on getting away from them. The guys
worked so hard to fix the bike and it
was incredible today."
Sofuoglu's visor had been steaming
up and he had to open it and close it
as the laps went on. He lost concen-
tration at one point looking for the dry
line because of this, under braking,
and he fell out of contention for a sure-
fire second win of 2014.
"The track was quite slippery but
I found it quite easy to go faster than
the other riders and make a gap," the
Turk said. "I was not pushing, but I had
some problems with my visor and I
could not see anything after lap three.
There was a very narrow line on the
track that you have to use in the wet
and I could not see it sometimes. I had
to open my visor sometimes and when
arriving in the braking areas I could
not focus properly. The good point is
that we were very fast in the wet today
and in the dry yesterday, but maybe
this year it does not matter how much
I fight maybe we are not going to have
the luck to make a good result."
Jules Cluzel won the World Supersport race on his MV.
continued on next page
