Fantastic weekend in the premier Chinese motorsport event for Splitlath/Erik Buell Racing with Mark Aitchison on board the EBR 1190. Over 70,000 race fans and a huge TV audience watched the US team battle it out with a reinvigorated factory Yamaha team with world class Aussie Josh Waters leading the charge. Despite having no time on a bike since last September, super fit Aitchison took no time in setting low times during practice and then snatching pole on his last lap of qualifying. In race one on Saturday. ‘Atcho” utilised the immense torque of the EBR to tip into turn one easily ahead of the pack. Then we saw an awesome display of the very best in motorcycle riding, with 6 laps in a row at lap record pace with just 1/500th of a second between each lap. The super quick Waters could just not live with it and Aitchison comfortably took the win.
Sunday started off with a huge festival for Malaysian Malacca, an extremely colourful affair and parade on track with huge crowds once again, superbly setting the scene for race 2. Once again, the “Razzle Dazzle” zebra paint scheme of the EBR 1190 stood out, sitting on pole. When the red lights went out, Aitchison pulled away from the “electronics laden” Yamahas, once again proving that with the right motorcycle, there is little substitute for pure human control. As the race continued, Aitchison piled on the relentless pressure from the front, wearing everyone else down with clinically perfect lap times at a searing pace to win with a larger margin than race one. When asked after the second win how the Splitlath EBR team are managing to outperform the motorcycling Giants , team owner John Dimbylow said “We have a small, well drilled team with no egos; we just work for each other. We spend a lot of time organising ourselves and concentrating on the job in hand. Mark is the most underrated of riders and in my view, one of the very best in the world. He works well with chief mechanic Tony Pogue, and we all get along, we all work hard and we all have fun. Working with the EBR 1190 makes us feel special; it’s a super powerful and perfectly balanced piece of engineering, and like Mark, far underrated by those who don’t know”.
Race 1:
Rider (Motorcycle) Margin
1. Mark Aitchison (EBR 1190), winner
2. Joshua Waters (Yamaha YZF-R1), -7.463 seconds
3. Huang Shi Zhao (Yamaha YZF-R1), -20.559
4. Li Zheng Feng (Yamaha YZF-R1), -28.997
5. Zhong Wei An (BMW S1000RR), -43.447
Race 2:
Rider (Motorcycle) Margin
1. Mark Aitchison (EBR 1190), winner
2. Joshua Waters (Yamaha YZF-R1), -11.316 seconds
3. Huang Shi Zhao (Yamaha YZF-R1), -31.045
4. Li Zheng Feng (Yamaha YZF-R1), -40.697
5. Zhong Wei An (BMW S1000RR), -41.138