2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

Anthony West Day 3 Report

Australia’s Ant West was forced out of today’s 250cc Czech Republic Motorcycle Grand Prix at Brno after a spark plug broke on his non-factory Kiefer-BOS Racing Aprilia.

The 25-year-old withdrew after 13 of the 20 laps in the race, which was won by Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo on a works Fortuna Aprilia.

West dropped from ninth to 11th position in this year’s 250cc world championship with an unchanged tally of 58 points after 11 of the 16 rounds. Lorenzo leads with 199 points.

After qualifying 18th, West improved to 14th on the opening lap. However, after eight laps the engine on his machine began to lose power and his lap times became slower. He was 20th when he withdrew.

West’s retirement ended a sequence of eight successive races scoring world championship points, including seven top 10 finishes. A broken spark plug also forced him to withdraw from the opening race of the year at Jerez in Spain in March.

The next round of the 250cc world championship is on September 10 at Sepang in Malaysia.

ANT WEST QUOTES: "My bike started losing power after a spark plug cracked. I was short-shifting from 11,000-rpm, but it wouldn’t run properly. The last few laps I did were about 10-seconds (a lap) slower than what I was doing at the start. There was no chance of scoring any points so the team called me in. It’s been a frustrating time here. We had problems from the first lap in practice on Friday and never got a good bike set-up. In the race I had no grip entering the corners from the second lap. My team are doing the best they can, but we are a small team with a small budget so I’ve got to live with the equipment I’ve got.”

“I came sixth in this championship back in 2000, and I used to race guys like (Marco) Melandri every week. Now he’s in MotoGP and doing well so good luck to him. At the same time it’s frustrating for me watching other riders get the chance to ride good bikes year after year and I don't. All I’ve ever wanted is a chance to ride something competitive. I’ve won races and finished on the podium as a privateer so there’s not much more I can do except hope an opportunity comes along.”