Régis Laconi (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) looked set for a strong finish in race two at Phillip Island until he was penalised with a ride-through penalty for jump-starting. Both he and his team-mate Makoto Tamada had found improvements in the set-up of their Ninja ZX-10R machines during final qualifying and morning warm-up, with Tamada finishing 14th in race two. Neither rider managed to complete race one, each suffering the same form of technical problem with their electronics systems.
In the second race Laconi was as high as fifth, and setting competitive lap times, until he was forced to take his penalty in pit lane. Laconi battled back, trying to score points, but had to settle for 17th place.
Tamada is now 19th in the championship, on six points, after scoring two points.
The first race was delayed after the original 12-noon start saw two riders collide with a stationary bike on the startline, and the red flag was put out to allow Vittorio Iannuzzo to be attended to at the trackside. He was riding for the Team Pedercini Kawasaki squad, on last year’s Ninja ZX-10R machine, and could not avoid hitting the stationary bike and rider in his path. Iannuzzo broke his left hand, but escaped more serious injury.
Next up for the team is an official FGSport test session at Valencia on 13 and 14 March, then the third round of the year, again at Valencia, comes around on April 6.
Makoto Tamada“We had the same problem as Régis in race one, but in race two we had some difficulty with chatter and entering the turns the bike still didn’t want to change direction. We also had some problems with rear traction. I got a couple of points today so we can take that forward to our next test in Valencia.”
Régis Laconi “I made a false start in my second race, but we have a race machine, not a standard road machine and they kept us on the start line for a long time. When you have the clutch pulled in for a long time, it starts to grab. When you rev it more in that situation it makes the clutch grip more. I am disappointed because I was running easily with some of the top guys and we could have had a good result. The bike still needs to be better, but it was good today and we could really race. In race one there was an electrical problem, with a misfire.”
