Weather: sunny R1 22°C, R2 26°C
Track: dry, R1 28°C, R2 , 39°C
Spectators: (80’000 overall 3 days)

Race 1: Winston Ten Kate Honda rider, Karl Muggeridge, finished in ninth position at the opening race of the 9th round of the World Superbike Championship here at Ten Kate’s home round at the 5.9 km Assen circuit in Holland.

After getting shuffled back at the start Muggas recovered by lap two, caught up to the leaders and was able to run with the leading group in the early stages.

Muggas team-mate Vermeulen, took the lead on lap four and brought home his second victory in the 2005 season, 3.4 seconds ahead of second place James Toseland, with Nori Haga in third.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “Karl started at a good pace and was running with the leading group but his grip level dropped off significantly towards the end so we’ll have to look at what changes we can make there.”

Karl Muggeridge - “I got a pretty bad start and got hold back for a lap as I couldn’t get passed the others, but managed to catch up to them eventually by lap four. However as I tried so hard I scorched my front and rear tyre, I tagged on the back of them but the grip really dropped off in the second half of the race. The bike still felt too hard and was very difficult to turn – I actually had to push on the bars to get it around the corners. We’ll have to look at everything for race two to see if I can keep going at the pace up front for 16 laps.”

Race 2:
Australian Karl Muggeridge finished the second 16 lap race after a better start in 8th position. Muggas was pretty disappointed with suffering again with the same problem as many rounds before. It’s very frustrating only being able to hang with the front for a few lap and then having to nurse the girl home to get at least some points.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager: “We were able to fix some of the problems Karl had but he was suffering on rear grip. We had a good test in Lausitzring and I hope we can find something for him there.”

Karl Muggeridge comments: “We made a tiny change for the second race, I like the way the front handled it was pretty good for changing directions, but I just had absolutely no rear grip from beginning on. I had a huge moment on lap three, nearly was down, and that’s when I lost the front group and Kagayama closed up to me. We really need to solve this rear grip problem, not sure how, but there must be a way. I’m very happy for Chris but I really need some good results for myself in Lausitzring”