Brendan Roberts

www.brendan-roberts.com

It has been a turbulent few months for the 2008 FIM 1000 World Superstock Champion Brendan Roberts. Roberts was signed up to race for the Guandalini Ducati team for the 2009 season in the World Superbike series and after a huge crash at Monza, Roberts and the Guandalini team have parted company.

Left in a quandary on what to do Roberts attended the British Superbike meeting at Knockhill and had several talks with different team managers and an inviting option that came from the weekend was to replace the injured Dan Linfoot on the Stonebaker/NW200 Coca Cola Zero 600 Yamaha. Roberts made his return to the UK at Mallory Park at the weekend and contested his first ever British Supersport race and gained a very creditable fifth place.

Having never ridden a full spec Supersport machine before and the last time on a standard Yamaha 600 was in 2005 when he finished runner up in the R6 Cup Championship, it was a daunting task for the young Australian. The 23-year-old originally from Adelaide in Australia had to adapt quickly to a 600 having ridden a Ducati in World Superbikes this year and a Ducati in the European Superstock class during 07 and 08, the bike could not have been more different.

Struggling throughout the weekend and being of a bigger stature than most Supersport riders, Roberts had a big challenge on his hands. Fighting hard Roberts could only secure 16th place on the qualifying grid on the small and challenging Mallory Park circuit. He knew he had his work cut out but was eager to get back racing after 10 weeks absence due to his serious leg injury.

The heavens played into his hands and a downpour just before the race allowed the riders an eight minute wet session before the 25-lap race was due to start. With the track drying Roberts and team-manager Rob McElnea made the decision to run full dry tyres. The track was only drying slowly and after the first lap Roberts with sitting in 20th place. Each lap he fought hard and by around lap 12 the track was drying nicely allowing Roberts and fellow Australian Billy McConnell, also running on a dry tyre, the opportunity to put in some fast laps.

Cutting his way through the pack Roberts was back into racing form and was soon lying in a top ten position and getting faster each lap. Roberts was making the most of the dry conditions and was soon battling it out with his former R6 Cup rival McConnell for fourth place. Hindered by a back marker in the closing stages he was unable to find a way past but settled for a strong fifth place on his return to racing.

Commenting he said “So far this year it’s been a very strange year for me, I had a couple of very big crashes in World Superbikes which knocked my confidence. After my crash in Monza it was decided by mutual agreement that I left the Guandalini team. This left me with no ride and I wanted to ride somewhere I felt confident and on tracks I know well. I spoke with Rob at Knockhill and at the time the 600 of Dan’s was available, I was a bit worried about going back onto a 600 due to riding a 1000 for so many years now but weighing up the options it’s was the best thing for me.

I had a quick ride out on a standard 600 before Mallory but it was definitely a lot to get used to in two days! My qualifying wasn’t great and I was struggling with the times, with Mallory being so small it was also difficult to get a clear lap in. I was hoping for some kind of miracle for the race and the rain shower happened to be that miracle. I really enjoyed the race and it was good to have a battle with Billy again like the old days. I’d like to thank Rob Mac and Richard Baker for allowing me the opportunity to race at Mallory. I’m not sure what the plans are for Brands yet but hopefully I’ll be back out there again racing.”

The next race is at Brands Hatch from the 7th – 9th August.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 7:44 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.