MotoGP 2006 - Round Three

Australian privateer Ant West raced to his fifth top 10 result from the past six rounds of the 250cc motorcycle world championship when he finished eighth at the Assen circuit in the Netherlands today.

West’s performance in the 250cc Dutch Grand Prix also lifted him into 10th position outright in this year’s world championship after eight of the 16 rounds.

The 24-year-old completed the 24-lap race at Assen on a non-factory Kiefer-BOS Racing Aprilia in a time of 41-minutes 15.874-seconds. He finished 45.104-seconds behind the race winning works Fortuna Aprilia of Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo.

West beat the factory Red Bull KTM machines of Japan’s Hiroshi Aoyama (ninth) and San Marino’s Manuel Poggiali (10th), and the works Repsol Honda raced by Japanese rider Shuhei Aoyama (12th), whose new Colombian team-mate Martin Cardenas crashed on the opening lap.

After qualifying 11th at Assen, West was fifth after the opening lap. He was sixth for a lengthy period behind Spaniard Alex Debon on a Fortuna Aprilia, but dropped two positions mid-race after being passed by Japan’s Yuki Takahashi on a Humangest Racing Honda and Italian Marco Simoncelli on a Metis Gilera.

West scored eight world championship points at Assen, improving his series points tally to 42. He has now scored world championship points in 68 of his 92 grand prix starts in the 125cc, 250cc, and 500cc categories since 1998.

The ninth round of this year’s 250cc world championship is at Donington Park in Britain on July 2. West finished second in the 2005 grand prix at Donington Park in wet conditions.

ANT WEST QUOTES: "I made a good start and when (Martin) Cardenas crashed some of the others got held up and I picked up some more positions. I went to the inside of the track and got a clear run. In the first few laps I had a big slide at the last chicane – the back of the bike came around and I was out of the seat, but luckily I managed to stay on and keep going. I followed (Alex) Debon for a long time and then (Yuki) Takahashi and (Marco) Simoncelli started catching me. My lap times were consistent, but both of them ‘blew’ past me on the straight. I’m never happy to finish eighth, but I beat some factory bikes which is always satisfying.”

“My bike ran better today. It’s never going to have the same acceleration of the factory bikes, but today the engine was as good as it’s going to get. I’ve got to thank my team for doing the best possible job with what we’ve got to work with. The clutch broke in the warm-up, so I was lucky it happened then and not in the race.”