Althea BMW pair qualify directly for Superpole2 at Buriram

Round 2 of the 2017 Superbike World Championship got underway today at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand. The Althea BMW Racing Team took to the track with riders Jordi Torres and Markus Reiterberger, participating in the timed practice sessions that establish entry to tomorrow’s two Superpoles. In the day’s first session, which took place in inevitably hot conditions (air temp 31°C, track 35°C), both Althea BMW men made good progress on board their BMW S 1000 RR machines. The pair set their best times towards the session’s end, a 1’34.710 for Torres and a 1’34.864 for Reiterberger, times that positioned them eighth and ninth respectively on the timesheets. Despite a rise in temperature for the afternoon session (air 35°C, track 45°C), Jordi and Markus were able to improve on the morning’s times by almost half a second apiece, closing Friday seventh (1’34.245) and ninth (1’34.410) respectively. Thanks to these encouraging results, both Torres and Reiti have gained direct access to tomorrow’s Superpole2.

“We’re completed this first tough day! It’s extremely hot and it’s not easy to be on the bike when it’s like this but having said that we’ve worked well. This morning we understood which tyre to use and didn’t have any particular problems. In the afternoon, we made some small changes to the electronics and it went a little better but the frustrating thing is that we have some vibration. For tomorrow I want to be more relaxed and ride more smoothly, because at this track I only complicate things if I ride aggressively.” “A positive day here. We made a good start in FP1 and I immediately felt better here than I did at Phillip Island. In the second session, we made a change to the rear shock and this improved my feeling with the rear, especially in braking, so I thank my team for that. We still need to make some improvements at the front but our pace is not bad right now. I hope to improve further tomorrow, if we can find another couple of tenths then I’m sure we can run two strong races on Saturday and Sunday…”