The brand new Circuito San Juan Villicum provided an interesting opening day of World Superbike action as both Leon Camier and Jake Gagne learned the circuit on their Red Bull Honda World Superbike machines, ending in sixth and 12th overall.

Having only walked the track previously, Friday was all about learning for the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team. Alongside improving their lines and the setting on the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2, Leon Camier and Jake Gagne also had to contend with a track that changed almost every session as more rubber was put down.

Free Practice 2 saw Gagne battling for the top three, consistently able to improve his lap time alongside the leaders. The American’s pace continued to improve throughout the final Friday session, a flurry of fast laps at the end saw him miss a top ten position by less than 0.080s.

Leon Camier made a significant improvement in Free Practice 3 to earn sixth place, a 1’40.706 seeing him through directly to Superpole 2 and guaranteeing a top 12 grid position for the opening race. Both riders believe there is still time to be found as the condition of the circuit continues to improve.

The next #ARGWorldSBK session is FP4 at 1045 local time (GMT -3) Saturday ahead of the first Superpole session from 1330. Afterwards, the lights for Race 1 are set to go out at 1600.


Leon Camier 2

The track is good, it was very dirty the first few sessions but it is improving a lot. The layout is really good, it has surprised everyone a lot. They’ve done an awesome job with the circuit and I’m really impressed. We made some good progress in the last session and we’re finding our way a little bit more. There were some changes in the start of the year and we got a little bit lost, but now we are figuring it out more and feeling better. Sixth place and feeling like there’s still room for improvement, which is good. It’s not going to be easy to pass; you need a good Qualifying and a good start. It’s going to be interesting!”

Jake Gagne 45

It’s nice here, it’s a really cool layout. There’s a couple of weird sections and a lot of different things but it’s all fun stuff, I like it. It was a little dirty this morning, but it has been getting better and better. First practice was a little bit tricky but in Free Practice 2 we started figuring it out and were on the pace. We have been a lot closer to the front than we have been in the past and in that last session it was all going well and then I just barely got bumped out of Superpole 2. We’re still working good and we know a couple of little changes to make and improve tomorrow. We have a good pace overall and we’re happy, see if we can get in that top two in Superpole 1 and see where it goes from there. It was a good day overall.

Kervin Bos -  Team Manager

Really good day, especially for Leon. He struggled a bit in FP1 and FP2 because we were still finding the proper direction after Magny Cours. With some small adjustments and the improving track conditions, he found his way around and the bike is back to working well. Sixth place is good but I think there’s more in the bag, I’m sure all the riders are saying this! To have Leon on the first or second row is the goal for him. For Jake, he opened the day really strong in FP1 and FP2 but couldn’t quite find that last little bit in FP3. Given how strong he started it was a little disappointing but he is a racer so he will manage the race properly. There are a lot of big names like Sykes and Baz in Superpole 1, so advancing will be difficult but doable. If he can be fighting for the top ten and to then build on it for Sunday, that is the goal.


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