Not enough grip in the summer heat: West 13th, Ramos 32nd At the first day of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, the warm and sunny weather was almost too good for QMMF Racing Team: When asphalt temperatures rose from 33 degree in the morning to 53 degree in the afternoon, both Anthony West and Román Ramos struggled with a lack of rear tyre grip on their Speed Up bikes and ended the day below their own expectations. West, who tested a new rear swingarm in the afternoon, found it impossible to properly evaluate the latest improvement for his bike and will try the new swingarm again in the third free practice session on Saturday morning. Spanish team-mate Ramos also struggled in the summer heat and is now evaluating all possible options to improve the set-up and to turn his home Grand Prix into success. Anthony West –13th in 1.44,025 “We started well this morning. I was comfortable with the bike and I felt good everywhere. We were going fast for the track conditions and we had a good pace with consistently fast lap times. This afternoon, we tried a different swingarm that we had never used before and it is quite different. But it was difficult to evaluate the swingarm properly, because the asphalt temperatures had risen a lot and one problem that we always seem to have with this bike is a lack of grip when it get’s really hot. When the track condition is good, the bike is fast, but when it’s hot like this, we seem to suffer more than the other bikes. It was really slippery and really difficult to ride the bike. I think the new swingarm might be better, but the conditions were so bad that it was hard to tell. We are going to use it again in the session tomorrow morning so we can make a comparison in similar conditions!” Roman Ramos – 32nd in 1.46,032 “In Argentina, we had a good race and I had a great feeling with the bike, so I had high expectations for my home Grand Prix here at Jerez. But here, nothing seems to work. It’s almost as if the team had given me a completely different bike. Nobody out there seemed to have any grip and we made no exception. I struggled on the corner entries and also at the exit of the turns, when you first open the throttle. But we will work hard to find a better set-up and turn the bike back into the good motorcycle I’m used to!”
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 18:13:02 +0000
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