A stellar start for the Nolan Group riders!
Along with the start of the 2018 WorldSBK championship came new rules, new expectations as well as high levels of apprehension as to what was to come from the season.
The Nolan Group riders did well to ease the worries of supporters early on. In particular Marco Melandri with a double win over the weekend, but also Chaz Davies with a hard fought 3rd place in race 1! Along with some other impressive early results made the Australian weekend an exceptional start for our riders, and their new X-803 helmet!
Not only did we do exceptionally well in Superbike, but we also had excellent placements in the Supersport with Federico Caricasulo falling just 1 place short of the podium.
A bit of a wait now until our next fix of WorldSBK action, the exotic Thai round in Buriram on March 24th-25th! We hope for another successful weekend!
Marco Melandri Race 1 – FIRST
“It’s been a fantastic race. Sykes got off to a strong start and it wasn’t easy to follow him and Rea early on. As the race went on, I managed to cut the gap. Once in the lead, it wasn’t easy anyway because the wind gusts were even stronger. The last lap seemed to last forever, but we hung on and brought home the victory. I want to thank the whole team for the hard work done throughout the winter. Tomorrow we’ll need to get a blistering start from third row, and we can still improve some details, but I expect another solid race.”
Marco Melandri Race 2 – FIRST
“It’s been a crazy race. The tire change made it impossible to come up with a strategy, as many riders could be fast for 10 laps. It was a big fight, with many aggressive manoeuvres. We still tried to look after the tires after the pit-stop, and in the last five laps we found our rhythm. Towards the end, it was difficult to pass Rea under braking so I decided to focus on the final sprint and catch the slipstream out of the last corner, in which we were particularly fast, and the plan worked. I’m super happy and can’t wait to race at Buriram.”
Chaz Davies Race 1 – THIRD
“I’m really happy with this result. It’s been a tough winter, so it’s great to start the season on the podium. The race itself was different than usual here, everybody pushed hard from the very beginning. I had a fun battle with Forés and I didn’t expect Rea to have whatever problem he ran into and drop back, but I seized the opportunity when it came. This morning I had a great feeling on used tires, but in the race we struggled a bit more, especially with the left side of the tire, and the bike moved a bit too much. Otherwise, I think we could have fought at the top. We’ve been improving session by session, and I’m happy with the bike now. The goal is to fight for the win tomorrow.”