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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

2 Septiembre 2020

Second Time Around At Motorland

Just one weekend after the first FIM Supersport World Championship round at Motorland Aragon the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing duo of Lucas Mahias and Philipp Öttl are preparing to face another one, in what will be called the Teruel Round.

Given the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic the WorldSSP championship will run to a total of eight events this year, with two full races per weekend to make up for the unavoidable cancellation of some other rounds. Hence the second meeting in succession at the outstanding 5.077km long Motorland Aragon this coming weekend.

Last time out at Motorland both Kawasaki Puccetti Racing competitors were in contention for podiums in each race and for the second time in his rookie season Öttl scored a podium, taking third place in race one last Saturday. He was fifth in race two on Sunday, to finish only his fourth career WorldSSP weekend in overall fourth place in the championship standings.

Mahias is still overall third after his fifth and fourth place finishes in the first Motorland races, only losing out on a hard fought podium position in the second race close to the end. This time around he is aiming for two more podium finishes to add to his third place from Jerez and second place at Portimao.

The Teruel Round will be held between September 4 and 6, with racedays on Saturday and Sunday once more.

After Aragon the championship heads to Catalunya and the Montmelo circuit for the very first time. Race weekend will be run between September 18 and 20.

With four rounds completed and four to go, the Teruel Round will begin the short run in to the final round, to be held at Estoril in Portugal in mid-October.

Lucas Mahias, stated: “It will be a new thing to have to actually race at the same track so close to the previous weekend and the gap is a little bit short but it will be a bit like when we race in Australia. We have two days of official testing and then an even shorter gap until race weekend starts. Maybe it will let some riders nearer the back come closer to the front because they will have had a lot of time on track. For sure you will have your base settings fixed on the bike already. We are missing a little but so we will try some changes in the settings and maybe the track will be in hotter conditions, but we do not know for sure at the moment. We will have more track time to practice again but not full days. We will work on the bike and me on my riding style. We will do our best this weekend and I would like to jump up to the podiums in each race.”

Philipp Öttl, stated: “I think for this weekend it is important to learn from last weekend, more down to my riding, especially going out of the chicanes. That is what I have to improve. Maybe, if we have higher temperatures, we have to focus on the bike set-up on Friday. I would like to work especially for the race because in the qualifying session and in FP3 we had quite a strong pace. I would like to focus on the race set-up on Friday, especially the front. For me it seems like every time I have a problem with the bike set-up, it is with the front. For everything else I think we can go into this weekend relaxed because the bike is working and we know the track well. We know which tyres options to try this weekend so we have more time to focus on the other things and we can start to work right away.”

WorldSSP300 champion in 2019, Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) enters the second Motorland race weekend in ninth place overall, with his fellow Ninja ZX-6R privateer Can Öncü (Turkish Puccetti Racing) 12th. Manuel’s persona best race finish so far is sixth; Can’s is ninth.

                                    #NinjaSpirit