ROBERTS STORMS TO ANOTHER SECOND IN EUROPEAN SUPERSTOCK 21-year-old Australian Brendan Roberts gained a superb second place in the European Superstock Championship at the EuroSpeedway Circuit, Lausitz (Germany, 8th – 10th September). He again impressed everyone on his debut to the physical 2.8-mile track, not only taking a fantastic second place in the race, he also moved to sixth position in the overall Championship Standings. Roberts riding for the HP Suzuki Racing Team has only completed four of the eight rounds so far after being drafted in as a replacement early in the season. Due to his National Superstock commitments in the UK he also missed the round in the Czech Republic in July. Since having won the National series in Britain he is now able to concentrate his efforts on the final rounds of the European Championship. The Grantham based rider spent his time wisely at Lausitz and clocked up a number of laps during the practice and qualifying sessions. Using the limited time to learn the bumpy circuit and get a good bike set up for the GSXR-1000 Suzuki. Eventually qualifying on the front row in fourth place he was eager to gain another good result for the Italian Team. Like Assen, the race was once again delayed, after completing one lap it was Red Flagged after a horrifying crash involving Championship leader Alessandro Polita and Ilario Dionisi. The delay meant that the race was reduced to nine laps and run straight after the World Supersport Race. As the lights went out Roberts charged from the line only to run wide on the exit off turn one, allowing Ayrton Badovini and Claudio Corti to pull a slight gap. Roberts was struggling for grip as he settled into third, then on lap six Badovini crashed out leaving him with a 3.2-second disadvantage on new leader Corti. With three laps remaining he got his head down but was unable to catch the Yamaha rider as he narrowed the margin by over two seconds. Roberts was very happy with his result commenting “That’s what I call a result, from being down and out Friday morning to standing on the podium on Sunday, it has been a really tough weekend. The team have been working hard to help me as I’ve struggled everywhere, the set-up from Assen was so far out for this circuit we had to start from scratch. Although I didn’t have the pace to stay with the leaders early on, I found as the tyres started to slide I was coping better than most.” Roberts will next be riding in the National Superstock Championship at Silverstone Circuit, 15th – 17th September on board the Astro Van Centre Kawasaki. European Superstock Race Result – Lausitz C. Corti Yamaha B. Roberts HP Racing Suzuki L. Napoleone Suzuki D. Lammert Suzuki L. Scassa MV Agusta Overall Championship Points Polita 137 Scassa 118 Corti 115 Badovini 109 Rocamora 68 ROBERTS 62 More, from a press release issued by Hardinge Ice Valley Motorsport Team: LAUSITZRING RACE ENDS IN DISAPPOINTMENT FOR TUNSTALL Tom Tunstall left the tenth round of the World Supersport championship at Lausitz, in Germany a disappointed man after tyre problems prevented him the chance of securing championship points. Tom, riding the Hardinge Ice Valley Motorsport Honda CBR600RR arrived in Germany in positive mood after his strong ride in Assen last weekend, but excessive tyre wear made it impossible for Tom to show what he was capable of. Qualifying for the 23 lap World Supersport race took place in dry, sunny conditions and with no previous knowledge of the technical German track, Tom and the Hardinge Ice Valley Motorsport team worked hard to find the optimum set-up for the bike. Despite numerous changes and improvements to the bike set-up, which enabled Tom to slash nearly five seconds off his time from the opening practice session to final qualifying, Tom was left down in 30th place. Tom elected to make a further change to the Hardinge Ice Valley Motorsport Honda CBR600RR for the morning warm-up and again for the race, in an effort to improve the bike. From the eighth row of the grid, Tom made a brilliant start and decided to run around the outside of the 36 strong grid through the fast turn one. His commitment paid off and Tom was able to pick up a handful of places on the opening lap. Unfortunately with just eight laps complete, Tom began to lose rear wheel grip and soon began spinning up the rear tyre on the Hardinge Ice Valley Motorsport Honda CBR600RR. The experienced 27 year old was able to adjust his riding style, but ten laps later the tyre was still losing grip and Tom was forced to enter the pits to change the tyre, ruining any chance of a point scoring finish. “We tested a number of tyre options for the race and decided to go with the slightly harder option because it gave me a little more stability. I felt we had a good set-up, but eight laps in to the race and the tyre went off and the bike started moving around a lot. I tried to continue to race and I was riding as smoothly as possible but in the end I had to pull in to the pits to change it.” explained Tom. “It’s been a tough weekend all in all. The track seems hard to set the bike up for and with no previous knowledge of the place it took us a long time to get the bike competitive. We’ve made some good progress with the bike though and our times have been improving all weekend, it’s just a shame we never got the chance to really go for it in the race due to the lack of grip.” he continued. Tom and the Hardinge Ice Valley Motorsport team now have a two week break until the penultimate round of the 2006 championship at the famous Imola circuit in Italy on 29th September to 1st October 2006.