With race 2, the second WorldSSP round drew to a close today at the Circuit de Barcleona-Catalunya in Spain. Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Can Oncu completed an excellent Superpole session yesterday, qualifying second. Later in the day, unexpected tyre wear meant that the Turkish rider had to settle for eighth position in Race 1. Today, in cool, cloudy conditions, Oncu was back on track for the final race of the weekend.
Having made a good start, Oncu was lying seventh when the race was interrupted with a red flag following an incident for another rider. The race was restarted but reduced to just six laps. As the lights went out, Can again made a good start and had moved up into the front group when a sudden hardening of the muscles in his right arm forced him to slow his pace and drop positions. The Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider gritted his teeth and finished the race in ninth place. He will travel to Italy this coming week to have surgery to remedy this compartmental syndrome that limits performance.
The next Supersport World Championship round is scheduled to take place on 19-21 April at the Assen TT Circuit in The Netherlands.
Circuit de Catalunya – Barcelona – Spain
Supersport World Championship
Race 1: 1) Manzi (Yamaha) – 2) Schroetter (MV Agusta) – 3) Mahias (Yamaha) – 4) Montella (Ducati) – 5) Debise (Yamaha) – 6) Sofuoglu (MV Agusta) ……….. 9) Oncu (Kawasaki)
Can Oncu
“We had a good race in the end, and the bike was competitive. I enjoyed it. We will work hard to try and do even better in the next races. In the end we did a good job but next week I am going to have arm pump surgery so that I can improve on my own performance. Hopefully in Assen we will be much stronger.”
