Adam Norrodin is unfortunately unfit to race this weekend, leaving team-mate Tarran Mackenzie to fly the flag for the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team at Motorland Aragón in Spain. After a short morning warm-up, Mackenzie was ready for the Superpole race, a ten-lap sprint that he started from twentieth on the grid.  Making up one position almost immediately, Tarran lay nineteenth for the first five laps as he worked to chase down Öttl for eighteenth. Coming within one tenth of a second of his rival on the final lap, the Brit wasn’t quite able to set up a pass and completed the sprint in nineteenth place. 

In the weekend’s second and final 18-lap Superbike race, which ran in warm, sunny conditions like yesterday, Mackenzie again got away well and was able to move into eighteenth once he had established his rhythm. He later slipped to nineteenth but nevertheless remained in contact with the rider immediately ahead. This reference allowed Tarran to manage the latter stages of the race and move ahead of rival Öttl through the final turns to secure eighteenth place. 

With ten out of twelve WorldSBK championship rounds now complete, Mackenzie lies twenty-third in the general standings, having collected 7 points to date. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will now prepare for round eleven, scheduled to take place on 11-13 October at the Estoril Circuit in Portugal. 

Tarran Mackenzie 

“We improved the bike again for the Superpole race and I was running closer to Öttl and with better pace, so that was positive. We then left the bike more or less as it was for the last race and the pace was definitely better than it was in Saturday’s race, which was good. We’re still too far away from the others, but I feel we’re now moving in a better direction and want to carry this into last two rounds. We’re still really motivated to keep improving and working to close the gap to the guys in front.”