World Superbike 2004 - Round 1 - Valencia - Sunday

Yamaha Motor Italia team-mates Jurgen van den Goorbergh and Fabien Foret got their season off to the perfect start after finishing first and second in round one of the Supersport World Championship at Valencia today. The duo fought through the tense and hotly contested opening laps to pull away from the opposition and win by over 16 seconds at the end of the 23-lap race.

Starting in overcast and slightly damp conditions, both riders were involved in an eight-way battle for the lead in the opening laps. After starting on the front row of the grid, Foret was first to make his way to the front - the Frenchman taking the lead from Karl Muggeridge (Honda) on lap six. Behind him, Dutchman Van den Goorbergh was working his way through the pack. Closing up on his French team-mate, Jurgen took a lead he would never lose as they headed down the straight for the 19th time. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Suzuki) finished a distant third to complete the podium.

The victory is the 34-year-old’s first world championship race win and takes both him and Yamaha to the head of the rider and manufacturer’s points standings respectively.

Yamaha Motor Germany team-mates Kevin Curtain and Christian Kellner both showed their speed in Valencia, but left Spain with little reward for their efforts. Both men qualified alongside Van den Goorbergh on the front row of the grid and a good start saw the Curtain mixing it with the leading pack in the opening stages. However, a wrong tyre choice saw the Australian slip backwards to ninth at the flag. Kellner meanwhile retired from a points scoring position on lap 13.

Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Yamaha Motor Italia) – first “I’ve missed a lot of testing and hadn’t even been on a bike for three-and-a-half weeks after hurting my wrist pre-season – so this result is a real bonus for me. When I came here my goal was to finish on the podium – and I thought that was something of a high goal to set. We chose a good set-up and the correct tyre compound today. When I got into second I always felt that I could pass Fabien. He made a slight mistake coming out of the final corner and that let me make a clean pass as we went onto the straight.”

Fabien Foret (Yamaha Motor Italia) – second “Second on my Yamaha debut is a brilliant result. I am still getting used to the R6 so my priority when I came here was to finish and get as good a result as possible. I did struggle a little bit as the race went on, but the good thing is that I know I will get faster as the season goes on and I get to know my bike better.”

Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) – ninth “I said before the race that tyre selection could have a big say in the result and ultimately that’s how it was. We had the choice of three different rears and as the tyre I chose just didn’t work as well as the ones used by Jurgen and Fabien, which was basically the standard road bike compound. It’s a shame as we had worked so hard and had a perfect set-up. The race was certainly eventful. We had some rain on one side of the circuit and that caused Broc Parkes to crash in front of me and I just missed him. Later in the race someone’s engine blew up and got oil all over my visor, but I was just doing all I could to get to the finish with some points.”

Christian Kellner (Yamaha Motor Germany) – DNF “Qualifying had gone well but I made a bad start and, like Kevin, I chose the wrong tyre. As the race went on the bike started losing power and I felt it was safer to pull in than go round slowly.”

The new USB Power Commander is already available for the ZX-10R, as is a powershifter