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Rain affects WorldSBK play on day one at Assen

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World Superbike is back in action at a (wet) TT Circuit Assen, where the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team has completed the weekend’s first free practice sessions with riders Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin.

FP1 ran in very cold conditions, the track damp as the session got underway. The circumstances did not exactly facilitate matters as Mackenzie and Norrodin got started on setting up their CBR1000RR-R machines together with their technicians. Having elected to remain in the garage during the first part of the practice along with the rest of the SBK field, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders were able to gradually improve on their times towards the end of the phase, setting a best of 1’38.089 (Tarran) and 1’40.150 (Adam) to place twenty-second and twenty-third at the session’s end.

With work to do during FP2, the riders unfortunately faced another wet session, with rain falling on and off throughout the day. Norrodin headed straight out, working to build feeling on the damp surface, while Mackenzie chose to wait ten minutes or so before making a first exit. The session was red-flagged with sixteen minutes left on the clock due to safety conditions, with the rain returning during that brief interruption. The resulting track conditions meant that no one was able to improve any further on their references once the session resumed, although Mackenzie and Norrodin did utilise the track time.

The SBK riders will be back out tomorrow for qualifying and the first of the weekend’s three races, with more rain forecast over the next 24 hours.

Tarran Mackenzie WorldSBK Rider #95

"Typical Assen weather, one minute it’s dry and then it pours a minute later! I felt quite good in the rain this afternoon though. It’s my first time riding this bike in the rain and I’m semi new to riding with traction control, so understanding this and what I need from the traction has been the most important thing, as we never had traction control at all in BSB, never mind in the rain. Unfortunately, we didn’t really get enough laps in today, wet or dry. From the end of Barcelona, we’ve gone in a direction that we hope might be better, but we need more time to really see. We’ll try again tomorrow."

Adam Norrodin WorldSBK Rider #27

"Not an easy day and of the course the weather hasn’t helped, with track conditions that have been mixed for much of the time. It’s hard for us to set up the bike like this, especially on what is my first visit to Assen with the Superbike. My feeling is OK in the wet, but the important thing is to be sorted in the dry, so we’ll keep working and try to find something in tomorrow’s FP3. We still have a lot of room to improve of course; I need to build my confidence and so that will be my main goal tomorrow."