The warm weather may well be nearly over but the heat is definitely on for the Yamaha Sterilgarda Team as they head to the Nurburgring in Germany after the summer break. Fresh from a month off the team will be looking to capitalise on the sensational double victory scored by British rider Cal Crutchlow on home ground at Silverstone in early August. The two race wins catapulted Crutchlow up the championship standings to fifth place, just in front of his team mate James Toseland in sixth. With three rounds and six races left to run there’s a potential 150 points for each rider out there to take the British duo up to a potential top 3 place in the standings.
Crutchlow’s last visit to the infamous Nurburgring in the Eiffel mountains in the 2009 World Supersport championship saw him dominate the weekend, taking pole with an incredible 1.3 second lead over his closest rival before going on to take his fifth race win of the season on the Sunday. Team mate Toseland hasn’t turned a wheel on the track since his Supersport days in 1999 but comes to Germany focused on delivering results and fighting for the third position spot in the championship.
“I can’t wait to get back on the bike again”, said Cal Crutchlow. “Finally winning two races at Silverstone was the result of lots of hard work by the team and I, I want to get straight to Germany and hope to do it again. I always find the summer break too long and really miss racing so I’m happy it’s time to go again. I had a brilliant result at the Nurburgring last year, it would be perfect to repeat the success I had on the R6 Supersport bike on the R1 Superbike. I managed to dislocate my knee riding my bicycle over the holiday but it is pretty much back to normal now and will be fine for the races!”
“The last time I was at the Nurburgring I was 18 years old, so it’s been a couple of years!” James Toseland commented. “Since then I’ve been to Oschersleben in Germany but not back to the ring so I’m really looking forward to it. There are only three rounds left now, we were close to the podium at Silverstone but due to my unfortunate fall in qualifying I was held up. I have had a good holiday and I’m now raring to go to get on with it. I can’t wait to get to the track and get stuck in on Friday morning.”
Nurburgring Technically speaking according to Marcus Eschenbacher, Cal Crutchlow’s Crew Chief
“We will arrive in Germany having not touched the bikes since Silverstone so will start on Friday with the same settings from the UK. We developed a setting that worked very well there and as Cal already knows the German circuit well we will get straight down to fine tuning it for the corners and elevation changes of the Nurburgring. We should be ready with the setting by Saturday so will then focus on making sure we have the right tyre choice for the two races on Sunday.�
Nurburgring technically speaking according to Frankie Carchedi, James Toseland’s Crew Chief
“Silverstone was a great weekend for all the team with Yamaha’s first win of the season. We will be looking to build on that result for the rest of the season. Nurburgring is a circuit that demands many aspects of a bike set-up, slow and fast corners, rises and falls. We will start with a bike as we finished Silverstone so that James can learn the track. Once up to speed we have prepared a different set-up on his second bike for him to try. It is to help him out of the slower corners by keeping the front down more, maybe allowing us to use a little more torque.”
Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager
“We’ve been waiting for this weekend after a long break and are optimistic after the great weekend we had in Silverstone. I think we can achieve some good results again in Germany. We have had a break as a team so the bike will be the same as it was when we left the UK. The characteristic of the circuit suits our bike and after Cal’s performance last year we are confident for the races. James has not raced here for some years but I believe he will pick up the circuit again quickly.”
