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Mackenzie and Norrodin take the positives from a difficult Misano WorldSBK weekend

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Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin remain optimistic despite finishing Sunday’s WorldSBK races at the Misano World Circuit outside the points zone

The Superpole Race got underway on Sunday morning, at 11am local time. Twenty-first on the grid, Tarran quickly gained ground, moving up three places during the course of lap one. The Brit battled hard to hold sixteenth position but slipped back a little in the latter stages, concluding the ten-lap sprint in eighteenth place.
In a similar vein, Adam made up three positions during the first part of this brief race before his pace dropped off slightly over the final laps. The Malaysian ultimately crossed the line twenty-first.

The weekend’s second and final 21-lap Superbike race played out in hot conditions in the early afternoon. Tarran worked hard to stick with the group ahead and make up positions from twenty-first on the grid. The British rider had progressed to seventeenth by the mid-race point but began to lose ground in the final stages, eventually crossing the line in nineteenth position. From row eight of the grid, Adam started well and was doing his best to settle into a rhythm when a Turn 2 crash on only the second lap unfortunately put paid to his progress and his race.

With four rounds now complete, Mackenzie lies twentieth in the general standings with seven points. Round five of the WorldSBK championship round will see the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team travel to Donington Park in the UK, with the British round taking place on 12-14 July.

Tarran Mackenzie WorldSBK Rider #95

"In warm-up, we went back to the bike we had in qualifying and that felt better. I felt pretty good in the Superpole race too, while in the long race I felt that my pace was ok, and I was able to stick with Oettl quite comfortably once he passed me. I had a couple of moments with the front tyre and then a bigger moment when I lost the front and had to save it on my elbow. That allowed Ray to get past me and I lost the advantage I’d had earlier on in terms of braking late and stopping the bike. I was lacking a little rear grip too, which made the situation hard to manage. I must have nearly crashed ten times, so over the last few laps I just focused on getting to the finish to be honest. The weekend started out really challenging on Friday and, while I felt pretty good in qualifying, the races were a little difficult to manage. I think we’ve improved the feeling with the bike though, so hopefully we now have something of a direction to follow as we head to home round Donington, which I’m excited for."

Adam Norrodin WorldSBK Rider #27

"As for the Superpole race, I was at least able to set my best lap time of the weekend, but I struggled a little to keep the pace, which meant I lost contact with the group. When we try to go faster, that’s when the problems seem to arise. There’s not much to say about Race 2, of course. I felt quite confident on the bike at the start, as we’d made some changes that seemed to improve the turning. I was pushing hard to try and stick with the guys ahead when I lost the front at Turn 2 and unfortunately couldn’t continue with the race. So not the results we want, but the progression from the previous round is clear and I’m starting to feel more comfortable on the bike, though there’s still more to do, of course."