As Curtain's replacementAnthony West stood in for Kevin Curtain at the Monza round of the World Supersport Championship and brought his R6 home in third for the team.
The young Australian made good progress over the weekend considering he hadn't ridden a four-stroke
for over two years nor ever ridden the Monza circuit. Broc Parkes qualified in fifth at Monza and was in second place in the race when his bike suffered a technical failure putting an end to his weekend.
Parkes has put the disappointment of Monza behind him and although he hasn't won at Silverstone before he is determined to claim his first race win of the season this coming weekend. His track record at Silverstone is encouraging for a good result - he has been on the podium twice in the last three years.
"I don't feel I have too much to lose at the moment. I just want to go there, have a good weekend and get a good result. It's about time things started going our way. I don't think we're too far off, we now just need to finish off the job. After the last race we got some good direction for the bike's base set-up which we can now put into action at Silverstone", Parkes says.
Kevin Curtain will not be entering the world supersport round this coming weekend. The injury sustained after being taken out by another rider during the Valencia round in mid-April is not healing as expected. Anthony West will once again replace Curtain following on from his podium finish at Monza two weeks ago.
Kevin says, "I just can't believe the bad luck I'm having this season Just when I hoped things would get better the wound got infected ten days ago. This has now been cured with antibiotics but I still have a sharp pain in my leg which, according to the doctors, might be because the muscle is put together too tight. The wound might have to be re-opened to correct this which means I will be out for several months. But for the moment I'm trying to avoid this by stretching and exercising in the hope that this can solve it. But honestly speaking I expect my season to be finished. I just want to get fully fit and race again next season."
"I'm really happy to be racing again for the Yamaha World Supersport Team following on from my success at Monza", Anthony says.
"I'm keen to go better and get on the podium again, maybe even get the top step. I know it's not going to be easy; this championship is very competitive and I haven't raced at Silverstone before. That didn't stop me at Monza though! I just hope the track isn't too difficult to learn as I want to spend as much time as possible in practice finding the right set-up as opposed to learning the track."
Yamaha Racing
