Doha: QMMF Racing Team rider Anthony West battled his way from 29th position on the starting grid to 21st place and started to aim at the point rankings, when he crashed out of the Grand Prix of Japan in the twelfth of 23 laps.
West’s third fall of the weekend was once again caused by front end chatter, a problem that occurred so quickly and unpredictably that West didn’t have the chance to react.
Team-mate Romon Ramos, who had started from 36th place on the grid, also gained several positions and battled within a group of riders for most of the race for an eventual 27th place.
Now both riders look forward to the next Grand Prix on Phillip Island in Australia, which is not only the home Grand Prix of Queensland-born Anthony West, but a fast and flowing track that suits the characteristic of the Speed-Up prototype.
“I had three crashes this weekend and all of them happened exactly the same way. It’s the type of crash you can’t really do anything about,” said West.
“The bike has improved from last year and I was consistently one second faster on this track than last year, which is a big improvement, but everyone else has gone so much faster as well. Trying to stay with them just meant pushing the limits and I crashed,” he added
“I feel sorry for the guys that had to work a lot this weekend with no results in the end. I was hoping to get some points. I could see I was close and I tried to push, but the bike didn’t want to do any more than that. Now I look forward to the next one in Phillip Island. Hopefully I can keep it upright and give the mechanics a rest for the weekend”
Ramos said: “It was a complicated race for us. We improved by half a second in the warm-up this morning and in the race I improved a bit more, but it wasn’t enough to get the better result we had hoped for. Now we have to think of the next race in Australia.”The Peninsula
