Adolfo Delgado, a 17-year-old from Mexico, was the fastest rider with a time of 1:59.755 during Free Practice Two at the KTM RC Cup World Final Friday at TT Circuit Assen.
Delgado, who leads the KTM RC Cup point standings in Mexico, told Roadracingworld.com that he used his previous experience riding at Assen during the Moriwaki 250 Cup in 2014 to get up to speed quickly Friday and had a “calm” day.
While Delgado lapped alone in FP2, Dutch riders Glenn van Straalen (1:59.792) and Ryan Vos (1:59.834) worked together to record the second- and third-fastest lap times, respectively.
Bad luck continued to haunt the three-rider squad from America Friday afternoon in the Netherlands.
Brandon Paasch, age 15, was near the top of the leader board and riding alone when he suffered a strange crash in the second half of the session.
“It felt like there was oil or something,” said Paasch, who was uninjured. “I was exiting Turn 10, my knee was off the ground, I was starting to get tucked in and the rear just let go with no warning. I spun all the way around almost 360 degrees.”
Paasch ended up ninth in the session with a 2:00.867, which was slightly slower than the 2:00.596 he did in FP1.
Ashton Yates used a change of gearing to improve on his FP1 time of 2:01.675 with a 2:01.64 in FP2, and then the 17-year-old from Georgia got taken out by another rider and crashed hard.
“I was riding on the [left] side of the track in Turn 11, and another rider ran into me and dragged me down the track for a little while,” said Yates, who escaped injury but destroyed his brand new Spidi leather suit. “It was pretty high speed. I had my hand up and everything.”
After suffering with a motor with a blown head gasket in FP1, Anthony Mazziotto’s borrowed replacement engine was even worse in FP2.
“I was in fourth gear all the way around the track because it wouldn’t rev past 9000 rpm,” said 16-year-old Mazziotto. “It kept getting slower and slower. So now I have no valuable track time today at all. I’m not even sure on my gearing.”
Mazziotto could only manage a 2:05.538 in FP2, which is much slower than the 2:01.982 he did in FP1.
The KTM RC Cup World Final competitors will be back in action at 11:30 a.m. local time Saturday for their one and only qualifying session. Their first 10-lap race is scheduled for 4:20 p.m. Saturday, followed by another 10-lap race at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.
KTM RC Cup World Final/MCE British Superbike Championship
TT Circuit Assen, Netherlands
September 30, 2016
Free Practice Two Results (all on KTM RC390s and Metzeler tires):
1. Adolfo Delgado, Mexico, 1:59.755
2. Glenn van Straalen, Netherlands, 1:59.792
3. Ryan VOS, Netherlands, 1:59.834
4. Luca de VLEESCHAUWER, Belgium, 1:59.996*
5. Peetu Paavilainen, Finland, 2:00.051
6. Finn de Bruin, Netherlands, 2:00.323
7. Joep Overbeeke, Netherlands, 2:00.428
8. Jan-Ole Jahnig, Germany, 2:00.579
9. Brandon Paasch, USA, 2:00.867, crash
10. Mate Laszko, Hungary, 2:01.192
11. Marco Fetz, Germany, 2:01.228
12. Milan Merckelbagh, Netherlands, 2:01.268
13. Ashton Yates, USA, 2:01.364, crash
14. Jack Nixon, UK, 2:01.940
15. Myles Wasley, UK, 2:02.260
16. Taylor Fox-Morton, UK, 2:02.627
17. Roy Voermans, Netherlands, 2:02.788*
18. Randy van Hees, Netherlands, 2:02.808
19. Jannik Kruse, Germany, 2:03.110
20. Nicola Barneba, Italy, 2:03.166
21. Kimi Patova, Finland, 2:03.317
22. Dianne Geesink, Netherlands, 2:03.368*
23. Jared Schultz, South Africa, 2:03.650
24. Rick Kooistra, Netherlands, 2:03.775*
25. Scott Swann, UK, 2:03.888
26. Rien den Ouden, Netherlands, 2:04.342*
27. Aaron Wright, UK, 2:04.622
28. Lorenzo Betton, Italy, 2:05.355
29. Anthony Mazziotto, USA, 2:05.538
30. Alex Dumas, Canada/Mexico, 2:05.710
31. Niko Hamalainen, Finland, 2:06.091
32. Alexis Cardona, Mexico, 2:06.828
33. Florian Chayne, France, 2:07.498
34. Tijs Heesakkers, Netherlands, 2:11.014*
*not a World Final competitor