The World Championship came to a new venue for the sixth round of the series as Mallory Park’s road race facilities welcomed the riders to a brand new track. Sébastien Pourcel was once more one of the riders who learned the new layout quickly as he posted the best lap time in all the practice sessions on Saturday. The Frenchman claimed his fourth pole position of the season and picked up the inside position on the grid for both races. The first moto was extremely brief for the GPKR rider who was third at the start. Philippaerts jumped over Sébastien in the second turn and hit his right hand - the bike was damaged too with a broken water pump and a damaged throttle cable so Seb was forced to retire.