American Kenny Noyes Fights to a Podium Finish in Barcelona Round of the European SBK Championship

High track temperatures, set-up problems and determined rivals made it a hard day at the office for the defending champion who is now second and nine points back after a third-place finish at the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya. Kenny extended his streak of consecutive podiums, started last season, to seven.

American Kenny Noyes, riding the Palmeto Kawasaki ZX10-R, battled chatter and grip problems all weekend as track temperatures soared to over 120 degrees on Sunday. From the start right through to the finish of the 17-lap European Championship SBK race, Kenny was constantly fighting wheel-to-wheel with one rival or another and watching up the road as Carmelo Morales (Yamaha) broke clear of the pack.

Kenny, starting from fourth on the grid, was fifth into turn 1 and running in the midst of a swarm of three BMWs (Adrian Bonastre, Dani Rivas and Ivan Silva) while the two Yamaha riders, Morales and Venezuelan Robertini Pietri, led. Once past the first of the BMWs (Bonastre), he needed four more laps to close the gap on Pietri, who low-sided out of the final turn at the end of lap 6. Three laps later, Rivas took a lunge up the inside at the turn 10 left-hander and crashed, nearly taking Kenny down with him, and allowing Silva, who had just moved into second, to pull a small gap.

While Morales extended his lead, Kenny reeled Silva back in and the two passed and re-passed each for the rest of the race, exchanging a little paint on the way and monopolizing the TV director´s attention.

At the flag it was Silva by a bike length and, immediately after the podium, the Palmeto Team met to go over data and to schedule a two-day practice session at Motorland-Aragon where Round Four will be held in two-weeks time on July 5. The team is determined to overcome the chatter and set-up problems that plagued them at Barcelona. Kenny is second in the points table by 9 points with 200 points and eight races still to be contested.

Kenny Noyes. Third

“It probably looked like a fun race on TV between Silva and me but, to tell the truth, I was having a pretty hard time. I could hold the slipstream of his BMW down the long home straight but when I led he could overtake me too easily. Even though we rubbed fairings a couple of times, it was a clean scrap all the way to the flag. I was disappointed not to get him back one more time, but having two guys go down right in front of me, especially Rivas who nearly took me with him, I realized just how easy it would be for me to drop it. It was slick and very bumpy out there. We got out of here with minimum damage—Morales took nine points from us—but now we know where we are. We decided right after the race to go to Motorland on Tuesday and Wednesday for two days testing to try and get rid of the chatter and to find some more speed. Our rivals made some improvements after Portugal and now we have got to do the same.”

Results Superbike

1. Carmelo Morales (Spain) Yamaha 30´45.359, 2. Iván Silva (Spain) BMW 30´53.620, 3. Kenny Noyes (USA) Kawasaki 30′ 53.785, 4. Bonastre (Spain) BMW; 5. Maurin (France) Kawasaki; 6. Kuparinen (Finland) BMW; 7. Texier (France) Kawasaki; 8. Al-Naimi (Qatar) Kawasaki; 9. Rivas (Spain); 10. BMW Esteban (Spain)

Points standing

1. Morales 70 (two wins); 2. Noyes 61 (one win); 3. Silva 46; 4. Pietri (Venezuela/Yamaha) 32; 5. Maurin 30; 6. Rivas 29; 7. Texier 28; 8. Bonastre 25; 9. Kuperinen 24; 10. Esteban 15.