World Superbike 2008 - Round Eight

World Superbike 2008 - Round Eight - Misano (Spain)

Regis Laconi and Makoto Tamada who took the 18th and 17th qualifying time in free practice this morning, regained lost ground during the qualifying session in the afternoon, when they reached 6th and 12th placements, showing a clear improvement at the Santa Monica’s track, where the 8th round will be disputed on Sunday 29th June.

The technical choices adopted by the team as the sessions wore on gave good results to Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse, which still has the possibility to improve the riders’ overall positions.

REGIS LACONI #55: “This morning’s result didn’t scare me as we used the free practice session to verify the feeling with the bike and I have to say that I’m really satisfied about it. I still feel some chattering though, especially in the last two curves of the track. Tomorrow we’ll focus on reducing the problem. The most difficult thing is to keep our energies for Sunday’s races, considering the high temperature of these days.”

MAKOTO TAMADA #100: “I used the first free practice session this morning to study the track properly, because it is partly changed from last season. Besides I also improved the feeling with the ZX-10R, which wasn’t perfect with my riding style earlier. First of all we changed the swing arm to the new one, which has just arrived, and I quickly felt a clear improvement. Now the bike is much more manageable when braking, and as confirmation of that I regained almost a second.”

FRANCESCO MASTRANDREA (Technical Director): “We are satisfied about the results achieved considering that we used the free practice session to gauge he feeling of the riders with the bikes. Tomorrow we’ll focus on satisfying Makoto’s requests regarding the set up of his ZX-10R, while the technical team working with Regis will use the time at its disposal to reduce the chattering experienced by the rider especially in the last two bends.”