An overcast and cloudy 8th round of the Superbike World Championship saw Team Hero EBR notch up another race finish as Aaron Yates brought his EBR1190RX machine home in 18th in race one before retiring from race 2.
Race one saw him battling hard for the entire 20 lap race with both Team Toth BMW riders, eventually finishing 18th on the road after winning his own personal fight. The race included the marshal waving white flags to all riders as rain began to fall for a few moments before half distance. Thankfully the clouds passed allowing the race to continue uninterrupted.
Race two however couldn’t have been more different with progressively heavier rain beginning to fall on the Portuguese circuit. Aaron started from the back of the grid and despite posting some respectable lap times in comparison to those around him, retired early in the race.
Starting once again from the pitlane (as in Misano) to avoid a similar penalty at the upcoming Laguna Seca event, Geoff May retired from both races although the number 99 rider complete more laps than in the first encounter, keen to get some wet weather testing under his belt.
Geoff May – “It’s no secret that we are onto engine ten with five races to go. It is impossible to do anything here from the pit lane so we chose to save our engine. We accomplished what we needed to this weekend in terms of testing the new parts and the results were pleasing so we move on to Laguna next week where I won’t need to start pit lane.”
Aaron Yates – “I am happy to be able to bring it home and finish race 1. We made yet more steps with the suspension so I am looking to move even further forward at Laguna.”
