Josh Brookes: - Grid: 16th - Race 1: 11th - Race 2: 14th

“It was good to finish in the points in Race 1, but it was hard to take satisfaction when a few riders crashed. My lap times were consistent and I knew I was pushing the bike really hard, but ultimately our sheer pace wasn’t enough, and our biggest focus right now has to be making consistent and fast laps.

We did a better race time in Race 2, but everyone else improved also which made it difficult to fight. We made some small changes to the bike overnight, and we improved some areas but went backwards on others. We mainly focussed on improving corner entry; the changes worked but it hurt the tyre wear.

I’m now looking forward to the test on Monday because it’s a chance to experiment with lots of changes to the bike without the pressure of a race weekend, and we have quite a few things to work through. I’m also particularly looking forward to the next round at Laguna Seca. It’s another new track for me and I think it’s difficult to ride, but I can’t wait to see how it feels.”


Karel Abraham: - Grid: 19th - Race 1: RET - Race 2: 15th

“It was really disappointing to have another technical problem and another retirement in Race 1. The guys know the full details of what went wrong, but basically it was an electrical issue. The bike didn’t respond in some corners and I couldn’t put the power down properly, so I had to retire.

It was good to get more points in Race 2, but I wasn’t happy with how the race went. The bike was more or less working OK, but we still had some issues and haven’t had much running in Practice this weekend. It took some time to get used to the bike in the race after we made some changes to it, but I began to trust it and I was able to push hard at the end and made my best lap time.

I hope the test will be useful tomorrow and that we can learn some things about how the bike works. We have a few settings that we want to try so we will do our best to improve. Looking to the next round, I love Laguna Seca and can’t wait to go back. It’s a challenging track but I hope that we can improve our performance and get more points.”


Mick Shanley, Team Coordinator:

“It’s been a very challenging weekend for us, and we need to reassess a few things moving forward to the next round at Laguna Seca. We scored points in both races but unfortunately they weren’t representative of where we are due to other riders crashing.

We’ve a few new things to try in the test plan tomorrow, particularly on the electronics side which should give us some good improvements. Hopefully the weather will hold out for us and we’ll get some dry weather to work through our developments.

It’s early to say how we’re looking for Round 9 at Laguna Seca. It’s an unfamiliar track for Josh so he’ll need to learn it quickly, but Karel has ridden it before and will hopefully capitalise on his experience. We need to have a smooth start to the weekend and if all goes to plan then we should be able to score points.”