Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Karl Muggeridge finished 9th in his first World Superbike Race at round 1 of the WSB Championship here in Losail, Qatar. Muggas got a good start from his 18th grid position and moved up to 11 place in lap one which he was able to hold till the race got red flagged due to rain and had to be restarted with 8 laps to go.

Muggas comments: I’m still struggling for energy and began to feel really drained for the last three laps of the first part of the race. So I was kind of glad to have a little break half way through. Our front end settings worked the tyres really hard, so we made some adjustments for the second race.”

The race was one by Suzuki Alstare rider Troy Corser in front of Laconi and his team-mate Kagayama.

In the second World Superbike race Muggas had to start from pit lane on his second bike, as the thread in the swing arm on bike no. 1 came loose. So it was going to be even tougher for him but he worked his way from dead last back up to 16th where he got into a bit of fearing bashing with Walker which finished the race for both of them.

Muggas comments: “The bike was working definitely better in the second race, even I had to jump on the spare one. I was going pretty good until I came up to Walker, I saw a clear line to pass him and then suddenly his front wheel appeared back into it and basically speared me. Things like that just happen, that’s racing. I look forward to get back to Europe and get some rest and become healthy again to go to round two at Phillip Island.”

The second race was won by the other Suzuki rider Kagayama in front of Laconi and Corser.

The Winston Ten Kate Squad as well as the rest of the SBK paddock will be off to Valencia in a couple of weeks time to get some more laps under their wheels. Muggeridge is looking forward to these testing days which should give him a chance to finally learn the bike a bit better, as he hasn’t been able to do a lot of testing yet due to rain and sickness.