Gino Rea wins Dutch Superbike Championship race at Oss today
01-06-2009
Gino and the Duntep team had a great win in the Dutch Superbike Championship round on the street circuit at OSS today. Starting from 4th on the grid. Gino battled with Raymond Schouten and took the lead after 6 laps. The weather which had been a problem earlier, then started to rain and the race was halted early with Gino taking the win. In Gino's words:
"The day went really well. In the morning warm up I was 2nd fastest and also went 0.3s faster than I did in qualifying with the same used tyres, so I was confident for the race.
Just before the race there was a heavy downpour, it was really weird as it had been hot all day. The rain stopped but the track was wet. It was still muggy and humid out and the ground was hot so the rain was drying up pretty quick. They delayed the race 20 minutes to see if it would dry. Before the sighting lap we could see the track was going to dry in the race but there would be a few wet patches in certain corners at the beginning. So we decided to use a supercorsa cut tyre in the front and a full slick on the rear. Everyone else went with full slicks front and rear.
I got a good start from 4th on the grid but as the track was pretty narrow I couldn't get past. I was 3rd into the first corner. I made a pass on 2nd place on the first lap but he came back at me a lap later and I managed to get back past him on the same lap. By now the leader Raymond Shouten had a gap on me and the track was fully dry, which was not an advantage for me using the treaded supercorsa. I put my head down and tried to close on Raymond. I was getting closer lap by lap and I got close enough to find a small gap to take the lead. I pulled a second lead and was quite comfortable until I almost lost the front while turning into one of the hairpins. I calmed down a bit, still with half a second lead, with a lap and a half to go it started to rain at the back section of the track, the race got red flagged and I won my first Dutch SBK race!!
I'm glad I could finally give the team a win, we have worked hard from the first race of the season and have had the pace, but never quite put the race together. Thanks to everyone involved in the Duntep Race team.
It was a good weekend overall, until the journey home. We got turned away at the Eurotunnel as we had a fuel leak. We had to leave their premises and get it fixed before we was even allowed back on, so we ended up being at Calais for 3 hours! Eventually got back onboard, then the alarm went off in our carriage as it had sensed a slight leak of fuel from the fuel that had leaked onto the engine from before. Everyone in our carriage had to get out of their cars and go to the next carriage along! But it was fine after it was inspected.
So an eventful weekend! Assen Dutch SBK next!"
Pictures from today are in the gallery here.
Sponsors
Team StoneBaker.
For 2009 StoneBaker Racing is sponsoring four riders. Dan Linfoot, Gino Rea, Christian Iddon and Pat McDougall.
Dan Linfoot has joined premier BSB team Rob Mac Racing Yamaha to compete in the British Supersport Championship.
Gino Rea has joined leading WSBK team Ten Kate Honda to compete in the WSBK Superstock 600 Championship.
Christian Iddon competes in the Supermoto World Championship with factory supported Team Motoracing KTM.
Pat McDougall competes in the BSB Superstock 600 Championship in privateer team Beowulf Racing.
