Rob Barbers emerged the best placed British rider in Qualifying, where he qualified 15th and also in the race, where he finished 11th at this weekends first round of the European GSXR Cup at the 3rd round of the World Superbikes in Valencia, Spain.
Rob first ride on the all new Suzuki GSXR 750 K6 wasn’t great. The bikes had been setup by the great Farizio Pirovano. The problem is that Pirovano is half the height and half the weight of Rob so the bike was far to soft. This caused a big problem as every time rob went to push, the front would bottom out and the back would squat. This left Rob 21st in first Qualifying.
Rob new what he needed to do and with help over the phone from his Suspension expert Andy White owner of KAIS Performance. He was able to figure out how to change the suspension to adapt the bike to his weight and size. What a difference it made straight away rob rode 3 seconds a lap quicker in 2nd qualifying. Rob really wonted to get into the 1.43’s but qualified 15th with a 1.44.2.
Race day and the whether wasn’t looking to promising in the morning and it looked like a wet race may be on the cards but it cleared up in the afternoon and it was hot for the race. Rob got a good start fighting his way up to 12th on the first lap. Rob rode a hard race and made places getting to 10th on the 6th lap made 2 places to put him 10th rob held this position until the last corner of the last lap where Ramirez slipped up the inside of rob on the brakes. Rob was disappointed about missing out on the top 10 finish and said after the race that he was only riding well with in his own limits as he just wonted to get a good steady finish for the first round.
For Monza, Italy in less than 2 weeks Rob won’t be adopting this attitude, he really wants to get in to the top 5. The bike just needs a couple more tweaks on the suspension to give him some more speed.
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