Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team’s Leon Camier capped off a strong showing in Thailand with a sixth place finish at Chang International Circuit, while Jake Gagne was back in the points after taking fourteenth place on the CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2.
Camier started on pole position in Race 2 courtesy of his fourth place in Race 1 and although he got the holeshot and led into the first corner, a fierce battle in the lead group resulted in him ending the first lap in P5. Showing consistent pace throughout the race, Camier was embroiled in the fight for the top five with Jonathan Rea and Xavi Forés and although he closed in on Forés in the final laps, he ultimately finished in sixth place.
Bouncing back after a tough race yesterday, Gagne had a strong start and in the opening exchanges fought his way up to ninth position. As the contest entered the final stages, Gagne found himself caught up in a five way battle for the top ten and despite a valiant final push was unable to make up positions and ended the race in P14.
After two rounds Camier is eighth in the WorldSBK standings on 42 points, while Gagne is sixteenth overall with 9 points. The series now heads to Europe where the Red Bull World Superbike Team will contest the Aragon WorldSBK round on April 13-15.
Leon Camier 2
The start of the race was great, I got the holeshot and led into the first corner and although the bike was very strong in the turns and under brakes, there was a small issue which made it difficult to defend against the other riders in the leading group. I still managed to keep a good pace and sixth place was the best I could do today. Overall I’m happy with how we performed this weekend as we were able to make some good steps to improve the Fireblade’s performance.
Jake Gagne 45
I got a good start to the race and for the first few laps found myself making up positions and I felt really good. In the second half of the race I was lacking a bit of feel with the brakes which meant I ran wide in a few corners and at that point I just tried to maintain my rhythm and bring home the bike in the points. It was a challenging weekend overall, but I learned a lot, improved my pace and scored some more points so we can take a lot of positives out of this weekend.
Kervin Bos
Team Manager
Race 2 today was another solid team performance with both riders finishing in the points, but we perhaps struggled a bit more with the hot conditions today than some other teams. It was great to see Leon again fighting with the top group and to be in the battle for the top five in both races was very positive and represents a big step in performance at this circuit compared to last year. For his first time at Chang International Circuit, Jake had a challenging weekend but in today’s race he showed his potential again running in the top ten during the race, so it’s another valuable learning experience for him. It’s another step in the right direction for us and puts us in good shape ahead of the next round at Aragon
