Malcolm
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Gagne caps successful WorldSBK homecoming with ninth place in Laguna Seca Race 2
Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team rider Jake Gagne scored a career-best ninth place in Race 2 at Laguna Seca while Leon Camier fought back from an early crash to recover to P13 and secure valuable championship points.
After claiming his first ever WorldSBK top-ten finish in Race 1 yesterday, Gagne lined up in P15 for today’s race and in carbon-copy style to yesterday, showed great pace in the early laps on his CBR1000RR SP2.
Gagne worked his way up into the top ten by lap five and maintained a strong pace throughout the second half of the race, bringing his Fireblade over the finish line with an emphatic wheelie in ninth place.
For Camier, it was another frustrating race with the Briton crashing at turn 2 on the third lap, however he recovered brilliantly to catch up to the pack and made several passes to ultimately finish in the points in P13.
With five rounds remaining in the 2018 WorldSBK season, Camier is twelfth place on the championship table with 75 points while Gagne is in seventeenth place with 37 points.
The Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team will next be in action at the Pirelli Riviera di Rimini round at Misano Circuit from July 6-8.
Leon Camier 2
Not an ideal end to the race weekend, but it was good that after my crash I could get back on my bike and had a good pace and could grab some points in thirteenth place. After yesterday's race, we made some changes to the position of my gearshift lever, but unfortunately I missed a shift in the race, ran wide and came off the bike in turn 2 which prevented me getting a better result. Although it wasn't the race we wanted today, on the plus side we found a good direction with the chassis and I felt better on the bike. We'll keep pushing for improvements in Misano.
Jake Gagne 45
A couple of top ten results at my home track made this the best weekend of the season so far. It was really great racing in front of my fans, friends and family and today I felt really strong on my Fireblade. I didn't get off to the best start, but after a few laps I was able to make some passes and make my way into the top ten, and then for the second half it was a long, lonely race. I had a couple of moments in the second half of the race but I managed the gap to the riders behind me and brought it home in ninth place.
Kervin Bos - Team Manager
Jake built on what he achieved yesterday to score his best ever result today in Race 2 and with two strong races this weekend we're really proud of what he has done as a rookie at his home round. He showed what he's capable of here at Laguna Seca and we hope to see more of this at the remaining rounds. On the other side of the garage it was another tough race for Leon as although we could find a better chassis setup for him at this track, he had a small crash at turn 2 early in the race. However, he showed true fighting spirit to come back to thirteenth place. Now it's time for Misano in a couple of weeks time where we will want to improve again and get good results before the summer break.
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25-06-2018, 10:45 AM |
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