Brendan Roberts

SUNDAY, RACE DAY :   SOLID START FOR ROBERTS

Brendan Roberts gained two creditable finishes in his first ever World Superbike races this weekend at Philip Island, Australia. Roberts who won the FIM 1000 Superstock Cup last season, has made the difficult switch to the World Superbike series with Guandalini Ducati.

The young Australian made huge progress over the weekend as he slowly learned the new superbike trade, the new team, bike and system of how it all works. Roberts gained a 17th and 19th place respectively in the two 22-lap races only just missing out on the points in race one.

Having worked hard all weekend to find a good base set-up for the two long races, Roberts was eager to get back out racing on track, commenting “It’s been a long winter and it was only decided late in the year as to what I would be doing in 2009. I found the races very hard but enjoyable, with Superstocks we only ever rode a maximum of 12-laps, so two 22-lap races was extremely daunting. The quality of riders this year is at such a high level and I’ve really been thrown in at the deep end with it all. I had a great weekend and we learned so much together as a new team. I know as the season progresses things will start to become a little easier and work more freely. At the minute it’s a lot to take on board and I have to learn it all, quickly. I’m just really pleased that I stayed on and finished both races. My next aim for Qatar is to try and qualify for Superpole and get in the points. I would like to thank the entire Guandalini Racing team for all their hard work this weekend and I’m sure soon the results will come.”

Roberts’ team-mate Kuba Smrz completed a very successful weekend at the opening round, securing a 9th and 7th place respectively.

RACE 1

1 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R
2 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R
3 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R
4 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R
5 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR
6 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR
7 55 Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098 RS 09
8 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR
9 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R
10 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1
17 24 Roberts B (AUS) Ducati 1098R

RACE 2

1 19 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1
2 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R
3 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR
4 55 Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098 RS 09
5 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R
6 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R
7 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R
8 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-
9 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR
10 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1
19 24 Roberts B (AUS) Ducati 1098R

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 9:50 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.