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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

16 Září 2018

Top Ten For Okubo And Barbera

Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders Hikari Okubo and Hector Barbera secured ninth and tenth places respectively in the WorldSSP Championship race at Portimao. One-off rider for Kawasaki Puccetti Racing, Kengo Nagao, was 17th today.

In warm and sunny conditions the dramatic race was finally decided over only 16 laps, not the planned 18, after a crash and then a red flag incident brought the race to a premature finish.
 
Conditions determined much on raceday, even for the experienced riders, as the air temperatures rose to 28°C and the track temperatures hit 40°C. 
 
Once again Okubo scored good points and he is 15th overall in the rankings with three rounds to go.
 
With everything from his machine to the track and tyres new for Barbera, the former MotoGP rider worked well to understand the conditions at a unique circuit with huge changes of elevation.
 
This was Barbera’s first experience of this class and this circuit, making his top ten finish a very positive introduction to this category of racing. Hector felt he could have made a better tyre choice with more track time at his disposal.
 
The tenth round of WorldSSP will take place in France, at Magny Cours, with raceday on Sunday the 30th of September.
 
Hikari Okubo, stated: “The race was very hot causing many crashes and technical problems. I also had some front end issues, as the bike experienced some chattering. After a few laps I also began to feel a bit tired and lost energy from my body. I tried to stay with the group but it was sliding a lot, especially in the final laps. I had to settle for ninth position. If I had a better feeling I could have pushed harder and got more out of the race. Today we collected very useful data and now we will try out best in the next few races.”
 
Hector Barbera, stated: “A difficult race for me because this track is new. The tyres are new for me as well and I selected the hard tyre, which I think was my mistake because I have a better feeling with the soft one right now. After FP2 it was not possible to try it because we had a technical issue. That practice was held at the same time of day as the race so it was necessary to try the tyre then, but it was not possible. I went with the hard one and my feeling in the front all race was not good. But it is my first race and with everything so new, a top ten is not bad, but I think it is possible to have finished fifth, sixth or seventh today.”
 
Local wild card rider Miquel Pons (H43 Nobby Denso Kawasaki) was 12th, and Christian Stange (Team GoEleven Kawasaki) also scored points in 14th place.
 
Javier Ezequiel Iturrioz (Team GoEleven Kawasaki) finished 16th. Only 18 riders finished from the 28 riders who started.
 
Rob Hartog (Team Hartog Against Cancer) was excluded from the results after a collision with another rider that caused the red flag. He is 14th overall in the general WorldSSP championship standings.
 
Wayne Tessels (Chromeburner Wayne’s Racingteam MTM) and Nacho Calero (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) did not finish the race.
 
 
#NinjaSpirit