After a strong weekend of racing at the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, the HANNspree Ten Kate Honda team now heads to a track closer to home for the 7th round in the Championship at the Nurburgring in Germany. Carlos Checa’s double victory showed the team’s growing performance in the development of the CBR1000RR Fireblade. With the bike on pace and morale and confidence boosted, the team is eagerly looking forward to continue their success in the German round. Carlos Checa CBR1000RR Two crushing victories at the Miller Motorsports Park last week secured Checa’s current second place in the standings and reduced Troy Bayliss’ lead to twenty-eight points. After taking his first pole of the season, Checa pushed hard in both races to break away from his rivals and secure his first WSB wins. “It was a fantastic moment to be on top of the podium again in Salt Lake City last week. The bike felt good and the tires were working well for us.” “I hope we can continue working the same way for the German round and stay in front to fight for more victories.” Ryuichi Kiyonari CBR1000RR After an impressive third place at Monza, eyes were set at Kiyonari to repeat his performance in the USA. Unfortunately some issues in practice halted his plans for a repetition. Despite his 20th spot on the starting grid, his improved starts allowed him to gain ground and he was up into 13th place by 7 laps. Kiyonari concluded the races in 10th and 7th place respectively. “I hope to improve on the mistakes I made in the US. I had a few issues in practice and worked hard with my team to improve and run the pace. Unfortunately I made some mistakes in the early laps and didn’t get as far up front as I would liked to.” “I’ll try and ride a more consistent race at the Nurburgring and hope to achieve some good results.” Kenan Sofuoglu CBR1000RR After personal circumstances led to his early withdrawal from the Monza round, Sofuoglu made his first appearance on track again at the Miller Motorsports Park. Despite struggling with his concentration, Sofuoglu pushed hard to improve his results and impressively gained ground from his 25th starting position on the grid, finishing the races in 12th and 14th place respectively. “I am looking forward to racing in Germany this weekend. I started racing in Germany years ago and know the Nurburgring well, even though it has been 4 years since I last raced there. ” “There will be a lot of my friends there to support me. I will have a little more time to sort my personal problems and hopefully will have a good weekend with some good results.” Andrew Pitt CBR600RR Supersport riders Andrew Pitt and Jonathan Rea have had a short break from the Championship since the last round in Monza but have both completed a successful test at Donington Park. After 5 Supersport rounds, Pitt sits fourth in the Championship standings, while Rea currently holds seventh place. “I have never been to the Nurburgring before but I’m looking forward to racing there. We’ll have to do as many laps as we can in practice to familiarise with the track and find the right setup for the bike.” “We’ll need to make some progress on the front guys and close the gap in the championship. After Carlos’s good weekend in the USA we will have to try and win some Supersport races again.” Jonathan Rea CBR600RR “After the test we did in Donington a couple of weeks ago we found a lot more information on the electronics and chassis, in terms of development we are now ahead of where we were in Monza.” “The Nurburgring is a new track for everyone so it should be a level playing field to start with. With the research we’ve done during the test I am confident we can make a head start and get some good results this weekend.”