From a press release:

Steve Martin enjoys a successful weekend in Monza!

It looked like it would be a weekend to forget when Steve Martin first arrived in Monza, with torrential rain threatening to ruin everything. But in the end the sun shone and Steve enjoyed two good results at the historic circuit on the outskirts of Milan.

In wet qualifying on Friday Steve had a chance to show his real ability and the potential of the Pirelli wets by going fifth fastest in the session. “It was great to be flying past the likes of Ben Bostrom on his factory Ducati,” commented Steve.

Monza is a super-fast circuit and there’s no denying that the top factory bikes have an advantage there, one of outright horsepower. Nevertheless Steve knuckled down to the task and scored a great 10th place in race one and followed that up with 11th in race two.

“We’ve had a chance to test plenty of tyres here this weekend, both in the wet and the dry and everything in between! We’ve collected valuable data, which Pirelli will use in their continuing work to develop their Superbike tyres even further. It’s been a valuable weekend and an enjoyable one too.”

There was also another high point for Steve–he was joined by his partner Sandra, who quit her job in Australia to share his motorhome for the rest of the season. “For me it’s important to have her around,” admitted Steve. “She’s my biggest fan but she’s also not afraid to push me hard and to make sure I’m always giving 100% effort 100% of the time.”

Steve made sure he stayed well in with another member of his family by displaying a ‘happy mother’s day Mum’ sign on the front of his bike on the start grid–Sunday was mother’s day in Australia!

Steve and Sandra now travel to Misano for more testing, before taking a long drive to Silverstone in England, for yet more testing before the next round of the World Superbike championship there.