Team Suzuki Press Office – July 31. The FIXI Crescent Suzuki team will make its second appearance on home soil in this season’s eni FIM Superbike World Championship when it heads to Silverstone in England this weekend.
Leon Camier and Jules Cluzel will be making welcome returns to the circuit that holds pleasant memories for both of them. Camier has tasted success at the English track with a number of podiums and wins in various championships, including securing the British Superbike title. He also set the weekend’s best overall lap-time at last season’s event, so will be looking to emulate that type of form on his Yoshimura-powered GSX-R1000 at Silverstone this year.
Cluzel was triumphant at the English circuit in the World Supersport race last season, as he took victory in the 600cc class after setting the weekend’s fastest lap and securing pole position. The Frenchman also secured his first-ever Moto2™ race win at Silverstone in 2010. Cluzel is looking to follow on with the good form he showed in Russia recently that saw him perform strongly in practice and qualifying, only for his efforts to be thwarted in the race when he was knocked off on the first corner by another rider. He was able to re-mount and continue the race in the awful conditions, before eventually finishing 10th, but was aware that a very good result was possible in Moscow.
Silverstone was built on the site of a former RAF airfield and the 5,902m track is the longest circuit on the calendar. It is situated in the Northamptonshire countryside, approximately 80-miles north of London. The layout is quick and flowing with a mixture of fast, slow and technical corners and some long straights, which leads to some impressive lap-times and competitive racing. With a total of 18-turns throughout its layout, including world famous corners such as Luffield, Woodcote and Maggots, Silverstone is still one of the most iconic race-tracks in the world and for 2013 World Superbikes will be making a return to the ‘National Paddock’, in a move designed by the organisers and the circuit to give racing fans a better and more involved experience.
FIXI Crescent Suzuki will take to the track for the first time on Friday for the initial free practice session, which will be followed by the opening qualifying session in the afternoon. Saturday will see the second qualifier to decide the 15-riders that will head towards the afternoon’s Superpole session to challenge for the best grid positions for Sunday’s two 18-lap races.
Leon Camier:
“It’s always special to race in the UK and in-front of the home fans on my FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R. I really like it at Silverstone and it’s a track that I’ve had a lot of success at in the past. It will be a better atmosphere this year as the start-line has moved back to the National Paddock, but the layout is still the same. I had the best lap throughout the whole weekend last year, but the races didn’t go to plan although we were looking good in the first race until I crashed! The FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R is improving all the time, so hopefully we’ll start turning these promising moments into positive results very soon.”
Jules Cluzel:
“This is really strange for me to have a second home race in the season, before I have had one in my home country! I felt really good in Russia and I was certain of a good result no matter what the conditions were, but I didn’t expect to be knocked off on the very first corner, so this ruined my chances. The FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R worked well at the Moscow track and hopefully we can transfer that to Silverstone. I like this track a lot, it’s very long, but one that I enjoy racing at and I have good memories here. This is a very important event for the whole team, because we have many guests coming and I’m sure there will be lots of people at the track cheering for the team; I just hope we can put on a great show for them and give them some really good results.”
