THE Splitlath Redmond team is heading home from an eventful trip to the Netherlands after a promising weekend at the TT Circuit Assen.

Despite a couple of engine failures in today’s two MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship races, riders Kuba Smrz and Troy Herfoss are feeling upbeat after a dazzling start to the weekend where they recorded the best performance to date on the team’s Aprilia RSV4 machines.

And the team believes it has now turned a massive corner with the development of the bike after Smrz scored the squad’s first ever front row grid spot ahead of today’s opening race at the Dutch track.

Starting from third on the grid, the Czech Republic rider got a quick getaway, jumping up to second place for the first few corners before slipping down to fourth. As he fought with the frontrunners he dropped down to ninth as he got to grips with his tyres, but by Lap Seven was starting to pick up his pace.

Moving up to eighth a lap later, his lap times began to tumble and he was starting to reel in the riders ahead. However problems struck on Lap 12 when the engine failed and Kuba was forced to pull over and retire.
The team worked hard to replace the engine to get his machine back out and on the grid for Race Two, where he lined up 13th. Getting a decent start he held his position for two laps, but as he began to suffer from chatter he dropped down to 16th.

He made up one place on Lap Five and settled into 15th spot, which he held all the way to the chequered flag to score the team’s first point of the year – despite his engine failing as he crossed the line in a cloud of smoke.

“It was a difficult weekend for sure,” he said. “In Race One I was struggling a bit with the tyre at the start so I wasn’t able to realistically fight for fourth or fifth so I was disappointed, and then we had the failure so there was nothing more we could do.

“In the second I had a good start but because it was a new engine we had no experience with it and didn’t have the best set-up so we struggled. I had a lot of chatter and even though I pushed it hard, I couldn’t do any more.

“It has been quite difficult because this is our first weekend, first time on the bike as we had no chance to test and it is a different electronics set-up to what I am used to. But I’ve enjoyed my first BSB experience. It’s a hard championship and we did well with our fast lap in qualifying so now we just need to build on that.”

For Herfoss it was another learning curve as he made further progress with the RSV4 at a track he loves.

The Australian qualified in 19th spot for the opening race, but encountered a technical problem just three laps in and was forced to pull into the pits. As a result he didn’t get a fast lap in and had to start Race Two from 23rd place.

This time he was fast out of the box and launched himself up five places to end the first lap 18th. Finding a steady pace he moved up to 17th on Lap Seven, holding the spot all the way to the end.

“For the team I’m happy because we both made it through to Qualifying Two and then Kuba went on to Qualifying Three and got a good result.

“But for me personally I’m a bit disappointed. I know I can be fast here and I know that it isn’t far away now with the Aprilia for me. I think we’re just a little bit off at the moment and I feel like I’m just riding the bike and not racing it.

“I have to thank everyone at the team for all of their hard work and I just wish I could’ve found that feeling and got a little higher up today.”

Team Technical Director Tom Larsen added: “In both races we had some kind of failure with Kuba’s engine. At the moment we do not know what this was, so we are now looking into it further.

“During the second race Kuba had chatter issues, but he did a great job riding around them. We had no experience from the first race and he did the best job he could out there.”

Team co-owner John Dimbylow remains positive after the team’s first trip to Assen. “What a weekend!” he said.

“We have seen Kuba improve every time he went out and he gave us a fantastic result in FP3 which he backed up with our first ever front row.
“Unfortunately we had a few problems today, but both Kuba and Troy did everything they could. Troy has come so close to getting that feel he needs with the machine, and Kuba has adapted to the championship, the bike and our regulations very well.

“We may not have taken away the results we deserved today, but we are definitely in a good position for the last few rounds. We’re all looking forward to seeing what we can achieve at Silverstone next weekend.”

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