German Jan-Ole Jahnig’s lap of 1:59.211 made him the fastest rider in the first 20-minute practice session for the KTM RC Cup World Final at TT Circuit Assen, but everything did not go as smoothly for the three-rider contingent from America.
AXcess Racing’s Brandon Paasch had the best luck of the group. The 15-year-old 2016 MotoAmerica KTM RC Cup Champion ended up seventh-fastest overall with a time 2:00.596.
“It went pretty good,” Paasch told Roadracingworld.com. “I started off slowly and worked my way up to speed. I was 1.3 seconds off the fastest time but I was only 0.3 second from second. We’re still working on the suspension because the suspension we brought with me got lost by the airlines. Right now I’m riding on stiffer springs [front and rear] than I normally use.”
Shortly after the first practice, Paasch learned that his suspension had arrived in the Netherlands, but due to the two-hour drive to the airport in Amsterdam he will not have use of his suspension until the one and only qualifying session Saturday morning.
GPtech’s Ashton Yates, age 17, posted the 11th-best time during the practice, which was not bad considering Yates, unlike Paasch, had never ridden at Assen before and was undergeared for the fastest sweepers on the track.
“The practice went pretty good,” said Yates. “I like the track a lot, and the bike was working pretty good except that the gearing was off. I think there’s a lot of time to be made up considering how much time I was on the rev limiter.”
Then at the end of practice, Yates said he did a practice start that damaged his clutch to the point where it would no longer disengage. Yates’ father/mechanic, former AMA Pro National Champion road racer Aaron Yates, was trying to repair his son’s clutch because there were no spare clutches available at the track.
The American who had things worst of all was Jimmy Winters Motorsports’ Anthony Mazziotto, who recorded a 13th-quickest 2:01.982 even though his RC390 suffered a blown head gasket early in the session.
“The bike was spitting coolant at me from like the second lap,” said Mazziotto. “I knew it was bad, but I stayed out because I needed the laps to learn the track. I also got no drafts because I purposely rode alone. Last year I was fourth-fastest but I was riding on a pack the whole time and I had no idea where the track went when I was alone. I didn’t want to do that this time.”
Mazziotto’s team borrowed a spare engine from another KTM team to install in his bike.
The KTM RC Cup World Final competitors will be back in action at 4:05 p.m. local time for a 25-minute practice.
KTM RC Cup World Final/MCE British Superbike Championship
TT Circuit Assen, Netherlands
September 30, 2016
Free Practice One Results (all on KTM RC390s and Metzeler tires):
1. Jan-Ole Jahnig, Germany, 1:59.211
2. Adolfo Delgado, Mexico, 2:00.276
3. Glenn van Straalen, Netherlands, 2:00.311
4. Peetu Paavilainen, Finland, 2:00.368
5. Finn de Bruin, Netherlands, 2:00.422
6. Luca de VLEESCHAUWER, Belgium, 2:00.514*
7. Brandon Paasch, USA, 2:00.596
8. Ryan VOS, Netherlands, 2:00.877
9. Joep Overbeeke, Netherlands, 2:01.528
10. Mate Laszko, Hungary, 2:01.547
11. Ashton Yates, USA, 2:01.675
12. Marco Fetz, Germany, 2:01.696
13. Anthony Mazziotto, USA, 2:01.982
14. Jack Nixon, UK, 2:03.186
15. Randy van Hees, Netherlands, 2:03.401
16. Milan Merckelbagh, Netherlands, 2:03.602
17. Aaron Wright, UK, 2:04.334
18. Rien den Ouden, Netherlands, 2:04.395*
19. Roy Voermans, Netherlands, 2:04.589*
20. Jared Schultz, South Africa, 2:05.086
21. Taylor Fox-Morton, UK, 2:05.746
22. Jannik Kruse, Germany, 2:05.812
23. Scott Swann, UK, 2:05.903
24. Myles Wasley, UK, 2:06.178
25. Dianne Geesink, Netherlands, 2:06.190*
26. Nicola Barneba, Italy, 2:06.875
27. Rick Kooistra, Netherlands, 2:07.583*
28. Niko Hamalainen, Finland, 2:08.508
29. Florian Chayne, France, 2:09.657
30. Alexis Cardona, Mexico, 2:10.486
31. Tijs Heesakkers, Netherlands, 2:10.670*
32. Kimi Patova, Finland, 2:10.898
33. Alex Dumas, Canada/Mexico, 2:11.135
34. Lorenzo Betton, Italy, 2:12.492
*not a World Final competitor