StoneBaker to start fourth and fifth at Donington
06-09-2008
2008 European Superstock 600 Championship
Rd 08 - Donington Park
Qualifying 2, Saturday September 6th
StoneBaker Racing riders Dan Linfoot and Gino Rea will start tomorrow's eighth-round race in the 2008 European Superstock 600 Championship from fourth and fifth place on the grid respectively following a nail-biting second Qualifying session at Donington Park today.
Going into the half-hour timed period both riders had very different objectives. Rea wanted to hold onto or improve on the second place he secured on Friday. Having crashed out of yesterday's Qualifying period on his first flying lap, Linfoot's goal was simply to get on the grid.
Although the rain that has plagued this race meeting finally abated just before the start of the session, the track was still wet from an earlier downpour. For that reason Rea was held in the pits until the field began to improve on their Friday times. Linfoot, on the other hand, was sent out immediately and soon worked his way into the top ten, heading the timesheets for a few brief moments at one stage.
By the halfway point, a dry line had begun to appear around the track and the lap times started to tumble. Rea was dispatched into action and ran with the front six straight away. His final lap of one minute 50.478 seconds looked set to secure the Epsom rider fourth place on the grid with less than a minute of the session left. But teammate Linfoot had his own ideas: a final scorching time of one minute 49.290 seconds in the dying moments snatched fourth and pushed Rea back to fifth.
The team was overjoyed with the performance of both riders after having to contend with such a difficult set of circumstances. Tomorrow's ten-lap race looks set to be full of drama and incident.
Dan Linfoot (4th: 1'49.290)
"I've a mixture of feelings at the moment. I'm annoyed with myself for the crash yesterday but now I'm on the front row and I've a fighting chance of a good race tomorrow. Perhaps if I'd gone faster sooner I could have improved upon my position but I was conscious of what happened yesterday and didn't want to do something similar. I kind of hit a plateau at the halfway point as I couldn't find a gap in the traffic. I pulled back a bit, got steadily faster and banged in a quick one at the end."
Gino Rea (5th: 1'50.478)
"I'm disappointed with that session to be honest. I've lost second place but I'm right behind the front man on the grid. Perhaps we left it slightly too late to go out - the track was drying and there wasn't much time left to get a good lap in. There was quite a bit of traffic, which made it difficult to get a clear lap in. We'll see what happens with the weather tomorrow. If it's dry it will be lottery as none of the overseas riders will have a good set-up."
Andrew Stone (Joint Team Owner)
Normally we aim to qualify both our riders on the front two rows of the grid and today we've succeeded. We've shown our consistency today, as we have done all year, and normally we podium from that position. With the weather the way it is today, you need to bring both bikes back at the end of the session and both our riders have done the job we asked them to do. A couple of our rivals are having a bad weekend while we're where we need to be - the fight is still on!"
2008 European Superstock 600 Championship
Rd 08 - Donington Park
Final Combined Qualifying Result
1. Marco Bussolotti ITA (Yamaha) - 1'48.011
2. Alex Lowes GBR (Kawasaki) - 1'48.530
3. Davide Fanelli ITA (Triumph) - 1'48.679
4. Dan Linfoot GBR (Yamaha) - 1'49.290
5. Gino Rea GBR (Yamaha) - 1'50.478
Sponsors
Team StoneBaker.
The great race at the new Portimao circuit brings an end to our season in World Superbike Superstock 600, with riders Gino Rea and Dan Linfoot.
The season has been a success with Gino third and Dan fifth in the championship standings following three victories and five additional podiums in total. The results have also acted as a stepping stone to the riders for next season, with both securing high profile, career progressing rides for 2009.
Thank you for all of the emails, calls, texts and visits throughout the year. It has been much appreciated.
