Brendan Roberts

Donington Park (UK), Sunday 7th September 2008 – in today’s eighth round of the Superstock 1000 World Cup, the Ducati Xerox Junior Team and Brendan Roberts achieved a fourth place finish while Robert’s team-mate Domenico Colucci finished the race in eleventh position. The Australian rider Roberts retains his championship lead thanks to today’s result.

Today’s was a very difficult race for the riders at Donington Park due to the strange weather conditions. The rain stopped just before the race began, meaning that teams had to hedge their bets and make a choice between rain or intermediate tyres. Brendan Roberts, after the positive results achieved in the warm-up this morning, preferred to stick with a wet tyre, not trusting the unstable conditions. Having made a great start, the Australian stuck behind race leader Polita for the first few laps, but then an anomaly with the rear tyre meant he was forced to slow somewhat, which allowed Simeon and Giugliano to gain. In the final stages Roberts dealt admirably with the loss of grip to finish in fourth thus collecting more valuable points that consolidate his championship lead.

BRENDAN ROBERTS – “It was a very difficult race because the tyre choice we had to make, in the absence of heavy rain, was a bit of a risky decision. We opted for rain tyres because parts of the track were still wet and in the warm-up the bike had been going well set up like that. In the initial phases of the race everything was going ok but pretty soon I realised that I was gradually losing grip at the back. I couldn’t take a podium place but I did all I could to chase Giugliano. It is an important result nonetheless as it means I remain in the lead but there are four of us riders with just 8 points between us, so the next races will truly be battles!”

Race Result
1.X.Simeon (Suzuki) in 21’30’’092; 2.A.Polita (Ducati) 16’’109; 3.D.Giugliano (Suzuki) 34’’318; 4.Brendan Roberts (Ducati 1098R Xerox Junior Team) 37’’319; 5.J.Kirkham (Yamaha) 44’’199….11.Domenico Colucci (Ducati 1098R Xerox Junior Team) 52’’516….

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1.Brendan Roberts 122 points; 2.X.Simeon 120; 3.M.Berger 119; 4.A.Polita 114; 5.M.Pirro 83…..15.Domenico Colucci 23….

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.