The Cremona Circuit in Italy has staged the production-derived championships for the first time this weekend. The second and final World Supersport race, which rounded out the track action today, ran over 20 laps and in warm, sunny conditions. 

Seventeenth on the grid, PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda rider Kaito Toba made a strong start and was straight up into the points zone, positioning fifteenth at the end of lap one. Sadly, before he could even begin to make progress, the Japanese rider crashed at turn 2. Unhurt, Kaito rejoined the race but was already twenty-five seconds down on his closest rival, team-mate Khairul Idham Pawi, which meant that he was unable to make up any real ground. Toba did in fact complete the race but could do no more than twenty-seventh today. A pity considering his starting position and the hard work he had done in preparation for the races. From thirtieth, Pawi was lying twenty-ninth through the initial laps. Working hard to keep contact with the riders immediately ahead, the Malaysian made up three positions over the first half of the race before holding twenty-sixth for the remainder of the race. 

With round nine now complete, Toba positions twenty-second in the general standings, with 15 points, while Pawi lies thirty-seventh with two points. Team and riders will be straight back to work next weekend, with the tenth WorldSSP round set to take place at Motorland Aragón in Spain on 27-29 September. 

Kaito Toba 

“We had another disappointing day and I’m really sad to leave Cremona with no result. Unfortunately, I crashed right at the start of race 2, at turn 2. I managed to get back on my bike and continue, but the group was too far away already. We’ll keep working anyway and will do our best next week at Aragón.” 

Khairul Idham Pawi 

“Not an easy weekend for us here in Italy, unfortunately. We’d hoped to do better, considering this was a track we’d tested at, but instead we had some problems. Today’s race went better than race 1 at least, and I did my best to try and stick with the group ahead, but it was tough. I was able to complete the race and collect some more data anyway; hopefully we can do more next week at Aragón.”