Victorious weekend for Sheridan Morais and Kallio Racing
World Supersport class returned on the race track from their summer break last weekend in Lausitzring, Germany. For Kallio Racing extra excitement was brought by the world championship premier of the new bikes for team’s riders in World Supersport class. And quite a premier it was, resulting in the very first victory of Sheridan Morais and Kallio Racing.
Sheridan Morais has been solid performer throughout the first part of the season, but the new bike has made him even stronger. Morais was on the top of the time sheets on Friday and Saturday, topping off great practice performances by being the fastest in Superpole 2 qualification taking his first World Supersport pole position with the new pole record. And on Sunday, Morais and Kallio Racing took their first ever World Supersport race victory.
“It has been a really strong weekend for the entire Kallio Racing team and it is great to reward them with this victory after their outstanding work in getting our new bikes ready in such a short time. It was good to be able to set the pace in the race with something in the bag for the end, but that never happened. I am very happy and grateful for my first win”, Morais said.
Niki Tuuli has been struggling in the first part of the season, but he too has quickly found a whole new pace with the new R6. Confidence regained took Niki session by session upwards on the time sheets, and on Saturday Superpole 2 qualification he was third joining Sheridan on the first row in Sunday’s race starting grid. On Sunday morning warm up session Niki did third fastest lap, but was demoted by 6 grid positions (Art. 1.21.2.), which took him in the starting grid from 3rd to 9th position. Not the best possible start for the race, but Tuuli fought fiercely and climbed up to the 5th place in the end results.
“Overall the weekend was pretty good. We have done a lot of progress and it starts to show in the pace. The race was not easy for me, I got a penalty which demoted my starting grid position from third to 9th. But I’m positive after this weekend and can hardly wait to get back on track in Portimao!” Tuuli said.
Team Manager Vesa Kallio: ”The race was very exciting. Sheridan took the lead from the start and held it until the 18th lap. Two riders in front crashed, the race was red flagged and the race result was the one of the previous lap when Sheridan was leading.”, Kallio explains, ”The whole weekend was a great achievement from the riders and the team. Sheridan rode excellently this weekend and deserved to win.”
In World Supersport 300 class race Renzo Ferreira finished on the 23rd position. Kimi Patova crashed.
“This was a tuff weekend for me, I struggled a bit with the bike setup, the new track and believing in myself. But we had good fight in the race, and I stepped up 10 positions in the final result from my original grid position. Pretty happy about that. Next stop Portimao, I’m going to be stronger there!“, Ferreira said.
Next race: September 17th in Portugal.
Results World Supersport class, Lausitzring, Germany 20.8.2017
1. Sheridan Morais, South Africa, Yamaha
2. Kenan Sofuoglu, Turkey, Kawasaki
3. Lucas Mahias, France, Yamaha
4. Jules Cluzel, France, Honda
5. Niki Tuuli, Finland, Yamaha
Championship Standings World Supersport Class after 8 of 12 rounds
1. Lucas Mahias, France, 121
2. Kenan Sofuoglu, Turkey, 120
3. Sheridan Morais, South Africa, 101
4. Jules Cluzel, France, 88
5. PJ Jacobsen, USA, 68
…11. Niki Tuuli, Finland, 38
Race results World Supersport 300 class, Lausitzring, Germany 20.8.2017
1. Alfonso Coppola, Italy, Yamaha
2. Marc Garcia, Spain, Yamaha
3. Mika Perez, Spain, Honda
4. Robert Schotman, The Netherlands, Yamaha
5. Scott Deroue, The Netherlands, Kawasaki
…23. Renzo Ferreira, Brasil, Yamaha
…DNF Kimi Patova, Finland, Yamaha
Championship Standings World Supersport 300 Class after 6 of 9 rounds
1. Mika Perez, Spain, 88
2. Scott Deroue, The Netherlands, 86
3. Marc Garcia, Spain, 85
4. Alfonso Coppola, Italy, 82
5. Borja Sanchez, Spain, 57
… 24. Kimi Patova, Finland, 5
… Renzo Ferreira, Brasil, 0
More, from a press release issued by Waznie Racing:
Szoke Makes it a Dozen at CTMP
The Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship returned once again to the pristine location of Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to wrap up the season in thrilling double header action.
Szoke opened up the weekend with a new lap record during the Dalton Timmons Superpole session on the Dunlop “Q” tires. Circulating a flying lap at one minute, 20.520 seconds (174.367km/h) around the — corner — km circuit.
“I didn’t think it was there, on the first lap I didn’t get a good drive onto the front straight and on the second lap I think I could have done a little better.”
Starting from pole position for the first of the two final races of the season, Szoke had the opportunity to cinch up his 12th Superbike Title. Szoke took the lead from the pacesetter two laps from the end of the 20-lap race and held on to win by 0.251 sec and bring back home the Canada Cup.
“I’m glad to be able to win the championship here at CTMP. It’s just a great crowd and riding around on the cool off lap is really something. I’ve been racing 20 years now and I’d love to keep going 40 more.”
A day after clinching his 12th Canadian Superbike crown, Szoke survived a last lap move to score his 65th career Superbike win and a clean sweep on the weekend points. A red-flag midway through the scheduled 20-lap race turned the Pro Superbike finale into an eight-lap shootout.
“What a battle that was. It feels good to win that way, battles like that can go either way and I’ve been on the other end too.”
Szoke’s self managed Mopar Express Lane BMW Motorrad Superbike Team also took home the coveted Inside Motorcycles Team of the Year award.
“The success of one comes from the efforts of many. We all work hard to make this work and it is apparent with our results we have an excellent package.”
Although racing has commenced in Canada the defending BMW Motorrad Race Trophy Champion is still in the hunt for his world title.
The 2017 BMW Motorrad Race Trophy is comprised of 20 championships with 27 different classes, staging 293 races on 89 circuits in 26 countries on six continents.
“I’ve done as much as I can to collect points in my Championship to gain rank in the BMW World points. It meant so much to me, and to us (as a country) to show our level of competition to the world. Let’s see if it’s enough when the points close November 19th.”
This weekend’s Mopar Pro Superbike races will be shown on TSN. Check the csbk.ca website or your local listings for dates and times Coverage of Friday’s Dalton Timmis Insurance SuperPole can be viewed at csbk.ca.
More, from a press release issued by Damian Jigalov’s publicist:
Roadracing young gun Damian Jigalov scores big at Talladega
Last weekend proved a very successful all-podium outing for young Damian Jigalov at Talladega with WERA Motorcycle Roadracing.
On Saturday Damian competed in the Lightweight Solo 20 race on the Apex Mfg. Yamaha R3. The 20 lap race in the hot sun was a great training tool for the youngster and he was able to show some of his racecraft learned from racing in Europe. Damian took the race win by a large margin and showed great consistency for the entire 20 lap race, with all laps being less than 3 tenths apart from start to finish.
On Sunday Damian raced in three classes in order to gain as much track time as possible. Race one was E Superstock. He made a great start from the middle of the second row and was instantly in the battle for the lead. There was very close racing for most of the race and Damian was able to finish 2nd in a very competitive class.
Race two was in Clubman, and Damian enjoyed a good, fast start Damian leading the entire race from start to finish. He was pushed for the whole distance with the second place rider right behind him, but Damian kept his head down and was consistent without a mistake for the duration and emerged victorious.
The final race of the day was Lightweight Superbike. Damian raced against the 650 twins on his Yamaha R3 as great training to chase the faster bikes. He was surprised to be quite so competitive in the class and pushed himself the entire distance to finish 3rd in a challenging class.
Damian Jigalov
“I want to say thank you to WERA for having the fastest riders in the country who push me to ride faster. Many MotoAmerica racers today came from WERA. It’s a great racing organization that has pushed me over the years and I feel this is one of the reasons I am competitive racing in Europe in preMoto3. I also want to thank my mom and dad, my manager, everyone’s support and all my sponsors because without them I would not be racing. Dainese/AGV, Arch Motorcycle, Biothermal LLC, Barton Construction, Podium Motorsports Pirelli, Maria Cid Farmers Insurance, WERA, Apex Mfg, Sportbikes4hireshop.com, Lionize Delivery Solutions, Apex Mfg. Gabitoy.”