The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda team and riders Tarran Mackenzie and Zaqhwan Zaidi have now concluded what has been a complicated WorldSBK round at Autodrom Most. 

Sunday morning warm-up was unfortunately of little use, running in damp conditions, which meant that neither Mackenzie or Zaidi chose to rode during this short session. Two hours later, at 11am CET, the duo lined up for the Superpole race, a ten-lap sprint that took place in dry conditions but under very cloudy skies. Both riders held their positions off the line, working to establish a good rhythm with their CBR1000RR-R bikes. Although Mackenzie and Zaidi ran a consistent ten laps, they were unable to remain in contact with the group ahead, both running a rather solitary race to close twenty-first and twenty-second.

The final race of the weekend, another 22-lapper, ran in dry, cloudy conditions in the early afternoon. A multi-rider collision through turn 1 saw Mackenzie and Zaidi move up to eighteenth and nineteenth on lap one. Tarran had little time to get into any kind of rhythm as a lap-three crash, at Turn 1, prevented him from continuing with the race. Teammate Zaqhwan also had a challenging time. He did his best to manage the race, holding nineteenth place for the best part of the 22 laps but a lack of feeling ultimately saw the Malaysian pit in the final stages.

Five rounds in, and Mackenzie lies nineteenth in the overall standings with 9 points. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team now has a little time to prepare for round six, which will take place at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on 13-15 June. Before then they will make use of a two-day test on 27-28 May at the same Italian circuit.

Tarran Mackenzie #95

“I was happy to finish the morning’s Superpole race. This afternoon’s long race was another difficult one and I crashed again; I’m honestly not sure why. Anyway, we move on and will try to work through some things at the Misano test so that I can regain some feeling and confidence, as I seem to have lost some of that since the Assen round. We’ll reset and go again…”

Zaqhwan Zaidi #21

“A difficult day. The feeling was OK in the Superpole race but things got more complicated in Race 2. I lost contact with the riders ahead but tried to focus on my own performance. In the end, I was struggling a lot and decided to come in. I want to apologise to the team and will now concentrate on training hard in preparation for the Misano test and next Misano round.”