Superpole
Winston Ten Kate rider Chris Vermeulen will start from the front row of the grid in round seven of the World Superbike Championship at Brno, Czech Republic. Chris will begin from fourth place after setting a Superpole time of 2m03.247s. This is the first time for Chris and the Ten Kate Team at the Czech circuit so with no testing time, and having to learn the circuit this will make for a challenging weekend.

After Supepole Chris said, “I like the circuit more each time I go out and, although it’s bumpy in a lot of places, we are getting faster in each session. We’ve made improvements throughout the day but we’re still facing the same problems as yesterday – but we are managing to make the problems a little smaller. It will be tough tomorrow as there are a lot of fast riders out there, but I will certainly give it my best shot”.

Race 1
Ten Kate Honda rider Chris Vermeulen finished race one in eighth place after a disappointing opening encounter at Brno, Czech. Chris made a solid start holding second for much of the race, however, he struggled throughout with the set-up at the front end of his Honda CBR1000RR, which drastically reduced his gripping capabilities. This meant Chris was unable to maintain his position causing him to lose ground in the closing stages.

Chris reflected, “I’ve just been struggling with set-up all weekend, really. The bike feels fine when the tyres are fresh but the set-up we have seems to push them quite hard. Towards the end of the race I just had no grip left so we may have to look at everything to see what needs changing for race two. I’ll definitely think about changing the front tyre because it felt like I was using it all up just to make the corners. I’m sure we can find some improvement this afternoon.”

Race 2
Winston Ten Kate rider Chris Vermeulen impressively took a podium finish in the second encounter of round seven of the World Superbike Championship at Brno. The race was initially red-flagged on lap two due to oil on the track and the decision was taken to start the 20 lapper again instead of an aggregate race. Chris began the restart poorly finding himself back in eleventh place, but with true Vermeulen determination he fought his way back through the pack, and with two laps to go cruised his Honda CBR 1000RR into third place for the Winston Ten Kate Team.

Chris reflected: “I didn’t get off the line too badly but the front wheel started to lift and I had to roll off a bit. I came together with Haga and got a big wobble on after that I found myself with a lot of fast riders who were difficult to pass. A couple of incidents cost me places that I had worked hard to get but eventually I got into a good rhythm and put in some good laps towards the end of the race. I’m happy with the podium though, considering this was our first time here – it’s a good result after a difficult week end.”