Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Misano

Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Round 11 Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli

The penultimate round of the Rookies cup was held in Misano on the sun drenched Adriatic coast of Italy on 11th-12th September…

With only one race on Saturday scheduled for the Marco Simoncelli Circuit due to inevitable track invasions on Sunday after the MotoGP race it would prove too uncertain on safety grounds to hold a second Rookies race on Sunday.

Friday….FP1….

Once again a new track for Rory to learn in his first year of racing in Europe, he spent the first free practice session getting up to speed learning the circuit.

Friday….FP2….

With some changes made to the suspension set up and a front brake problem checked out after FP1, Rory went out to build on the first sessions, progress and better his times.

Friday….Qualifying…..

The changes made were a step forward but not perfect. Rory managed however to knock two seconds off his previous lap time while working hard at learning the circuit. By the end of the session he had bettered his times, sitting only 2 seconds off pole position yet 20th on the grid for Saturdays race.

Saturday…. Race….

The weather had changed from blue skies and high temperatures on Friday to some clouds, a slight drop in temperature and a bit of a breeze, still, conditions were perfect by race time.

The only adjustments made to the bike for the race were new front brake pads.

Rory was fairly confident of a good start and managed to pick off a few riders by the end of lap one. As he progressed in positions he hung on to a group fighting for 9th. After a few laps he was increasingly starting to struggle with the front end under braking entering corners and struggled with the most recent set up on corner exit causing him to ease off a bit to let the bike exit better, not ideal and by far one of Rory’s least favourite races to date…. He did manage to run consistently faster times throughout the race than his qualifying time which was a positive.

Rory said: “Not my best weekend by far, my final position of 16th wasn’t so bad but I felt at Silverstone we had made a really positive step forward in the suspension set up we had found and it was really starting to work for me. We come to Italy and I cannot get it to do anything I want it to do, when I want it to do it, this is fairly frustrating as I was really looking forward to a great race at Misano, but that’s how it is sometimes I guess! I’m hoping we can go back to the settings we had at Silverstone for the last meeting of the Rookies Cup for 2015 at Motorland Aragon and see what I can do”.

The hope is that a decent setting can be dialed in to the KTM for his last two races this year with the Rookies Cup at Motorland Aragon in Spain on 26th-27th September.

To keep most up to date with Rory’s racing, please like his Facebook page, Rory Skinner Racing