It has been a busy day and half since the Star River-Windsor Arch Macau Grand Prix roared into action at 7am yesterday morning.

One practice session and two qualifying sessions in quick succession has been a tough schedule in the humidity here but the results have been spectacular.

First qualifying saw the riders improve their laptimes thanks to the changes made in the garage after the first practice session.

Mark Miller after 1st qualifying:
“The bike is working well on many levels and not as well in a couple others. It turns well on its side now and is stable under hard braking. We have got an overall balance over the massive bumps to the point of being ride-able over race distance.“

Brandon Cretu:
“We improved a lot in Q1 and nearly matched my pace from last year but still not good enough as Rutter put in a 2:25.9. Ideally, need to drop about 3 seconds tomorrow to make it comfortably into the show. The bike is well improved and I am confident I can do it tomorrow with new Dunlops on and some rest.“

The tech crew from the US AMA series Buell team again proved to be utter professionals and suggested some vital changes especially to the number 10 bike of Miller with wheelbase lengthening to help the gearing and stability over the bumpy sections.

Final qualifying was this morning and Mark was delighted with the results of the overnight work with the bike and continued to knock a couple of seconds off the time from the previous session.

However, all was not to go entirely to plan. Sadly whilst Mark was improving all the time so was the rest of the pack which meant he failed to gain any places and qualified in 20th position for the 15 lap race tomorrow. Brandon suffered in a more direct manner as he had to retire with a mechanical issue half way through the session without setting a better time so he will start at the back of the grid.

Brandon:
“We made the big show just barely. I am happy enough considering I ran a personal best of a 2:39.3. Unfortunately something let go in the engine halfway through the session and leaving me no chance to go any faster.I feel bad that the team has more work than expected today so I owe them a few more pints and a good finish tomorrow.”

The team, however, are delighted with the performance of the unique EBR1190RS, how the team and riders have gelled with it and how much interest it has generated.

Thanks go to Dafabet as our main sponsors and to EBR for such a great machine.


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