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SS Kyalami: Fourth Place For Joan Lascorz In Africa

In SBK

18 maggio 2009

SS Kyalami: Fourth Place For Joan Lascorz In Africa

Joan Lascorz found himself battling for a podium spot at Kyalami but had to settle for fourth after a last lap packed with drama in the only World Supersport round to be held in Africa this season.

The Spanish rider was looking set for fourth place at best before Fabien Foret crashed out, suddenly making Lascorz’s man-to-man fight with Kenan Sofuoglu a podium struggle.

As Lascorz and Sofuoglu attempted to gain the advantage in an action-packed last few corners, they were caught by following rider Mark Aitchison, who took the final podium place, behind race winner Eugene Laverty and Cal Crutchlow.

Lascorz improved his current overall championship placing to fifth, on 60 points.

Lascorz’ Provec Motocard.com Kawasaki team mate Katsuaki Fujiwara rode his Ninja ZX-6R to 13th in the race, having chosen the wrong gearing for raceday. He is now 13th, on 26 points.

Joan Lascorz: “The last lap was a very big fight and Sofuoglu got past me again, then I went inside, only for Aitchison to come past us both. I did not know Aitchison was so close behind. The bike was pretty much like yesterday, because we tried a new thing in the warm-up this morning, but it didn’t work, so we went back to what we knew. It’s a shame to miss out on the podium when we got a chance late in the race.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “Our bike was a bit better today and the engine was stronger. We changed the gearing a bit because we were running too high revs a lot yesterday but we went a bit too long with it and it did not push so hard up the hills. The start of the race wasn’t so bad but then the rear started chattering and then it was difficult to keep the line. It was also tough under hard braking.”