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Fabien Foret finished second in Sunday’s third round and crash-strewn World Supersport Championship race at Assen in the Netherlands. The Frenchman finished seven seconds behind race winner ParkinGO Yamaha’s Chaz Davies after tire problems forced him to ease off in the closing laps

The race was red flagged twice; initially after Parkalgar Honda rider Sam Lowes crashed out of contention on lap four. The restart was barely a lap old before two other riders crashed at the final chicane, bringing out another red flag.

In the second restart, Foret’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda teammate, Florian Marino, was taken out of a podium position by Italian rider Luca Scassa, who careered into the rear of Marino’s Honda CBR600RR on lap seven of the revised 16-lap encounter around the 4.542km Assen circuit.

Foret had started the race from the outside of the front row and fell back to sixth place in the early stages before fighting his way through and then benefiting from the exit of Marino and Scassa.

However, tire problems similar to those which forced his exit from the opening round in Australia, meant the French rider was unable to push and, with a big gap behind him, he rolled off the throttle to ensure his first points of the season.

Fabien Foret – 2nd
It was a tough day but I’m happy with 20 points, but we had some pretty bad tire issues with about four or five laps to go. I had to try to save the tire and finish the race so I was lucky that there was a good gap to Broc Parkes in third. I had to ride really slowly just to finish the race but at the end of the day it turned into quite a good weekend. Between the tire issue and the fact that I am still not quite 100%, it’s good to get some points and I hope for Monza to be in really good shape to fight for a win.

Florian Marino – DNF
Of course I’m really disappointed. After all the work that we did as a team over this weekend, it’s a very tough way to finish a race. I know these things can happen in a race sometimes, but I’m not happy that it happened to me today. Everything was OK in the race and I was just waiting to see how Gino Rea was going in front of me. But I have shown that I can fight for podium positions and I’m looking forward to Monza to do that again.

Ronald ten Kate, Team manager
We had quite a difficult weekend here until Sunday morning. On Saturday night we found a breakthrough with setup which needed a lot of extra hours working from everyone involved with the team. So a big thanks must go to them for today’s results. Florian was riding at his best ever for us and was very unfortunate to be taken out. But things like that happen when there’s an intense battle up front and, for sure, being as young as he is, there will be more days for him. Fabien also had troubles this weekend. Injuries have not been holding him back so much and the Sunday morning set-up really allowed him to propel himself forward in the race. However, he encountered a similar tire problem to Phillip Island, and he had to close down the throttle towards the end of the race. We need to work on his starts, which are not so good, but apart from that I must give him big compliments for staying calm all weekend. When the bike was good, he was really fast so we’re really looking forward to Monza and carrying this momentum forward. We’re not so far behind in the championship so we’ll take it race-by-race and get the maximum we can from each weekend.

2011 World Supersport championship, round three – Assen, Netherlands
Results (16 laps):
1. Chaz Davies (GBR) Yamaha 26m37.029s
2. Fabien Foret (FRA) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +7.236s
3. Broc Parkes (AUS) Kawasaki +8.084s
4. Robbin Harms (DEN) Honda +8.191s
DNF. Florian Marino (FRA) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda

Championship points after three of 12 rounds:
1. Luca Scassa (ITA) Yamaha 50, 2. Parkes 47, 3. Davies 45, 4. Harms 37, 5. Salom 34, 6. Foret 20, 9. Marino 17

Next round: Monza, Italy – May 6-8.

Yamaha ParkinGO Team rider, and 2008 AMA Daytona 200 winner, Chaz Davies took his maiden victory in the World Supersport Championship today on the historic Dutch track in Assen. The Brit didn’t hesitate to take the lead right off the grid and ride his YZF-R6 to cross the checkered flag with over seven seconds ahead of his competitors. Davies put in a spectacular performance, keeping the leading throughout the entire race and providing the Yamaha ParkinGO WSS Team with their third consecutive race win of the 2011 season.

Chaz Davies

Another former AMA rider, Davies’ teammate Luca Scassa, had a less fortunate race day, crashing out mid race. The Italian rider got off to a less-than-perfect start from his pole position on the grid, falling back to fourth. He immediately regained a steady race pace, and on attempting to jump up to third, he collided with France’s Florian Marino, sitting just ahead of him. As a minor compensation for the disappointing race today in Assen, Scassa claimed the fastest race lap with a lap time of 1’39.019, showing his true potential and that of his YZF- R6 machine.

Plenty of drama was on display as the race was red flagged twice. On both occasions, Scassa and Davies had gotten perfect starts off the grid from pole and eighth position and were sitting comfortably in first and second places respectively before a series of riders crashed out, causing the race to be red flagged.

Scassa heads to his home round in Monza still leading the championship on 50 points. Davies is now just five points behind, sitting in third position with a total of 45 points, while Yamaha is comfortably leading the Manufacturers Championship by 14 points.

Chaz Davies, Yamaha ParkinGO Team – 1st, 1’39.007
“Finally. I think that sums up how long I have waited for today to come. It’s often a case of luck and I feel it has rarely been on my side in the last few years and so far this season. The bike is doing really well. After yesterday’s accident in qualifying, the team had to work really hard all night to rebuild the bike and I think I managed to repay them for it. I’m looking forward to Monza now that I am officially back in the hunt.”

Luca Scassa, Yamaha ParkinGO Team – DNF
“Today was very stressful due to the three race starts. Everything was under control in first two races, I was sitting nicely in the lead before we were red flagged. Unfortunately the third time around I didn’t get off to a very good start. I had difficulty overtaking and when Marino seemed to slow down, I just lost control of the bike. I’ve learnt a lesson and hopefully it won’t happen again. I have to be tougher from the start and get my head down and just go. I’ll make up for it in Monza.” Read more…

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider Florian Marino rode to eighth place in today’s second round World Supersport race at Donington Park in the UK. The race was won by Italian Luca Scassa.

Hannspree Ten Kate's Florian Marino

Marino’s teammate, Fabien Foret, was withdrawn from the race before warm-up this morning following consultation between his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team and medical staff. The French rider’s right hand was too sore to ride after his crash and subsequent operation on Friday.

Marino enjoyed a better start to the race than in the opening round at Phillip Island in Australia four weeks ago, but almost crashed at Donington’s Melbourne hairpin on both of the opening two laps.

The 18-year-old from Cannes in the south of France settled into a battle for his second consecutive top-ten finish in his debut World Supersport season.

Florian Marino – P8
I expected it to be a hard weekend and that’s what it has been. We found a good balance in qualifying and the bike felt OK, but we used a different tire today and it wasn’t the same feeling in warm-up. I couldn’t gas as quickly as I wanted because the grip level was not so good. My start was not so bad but I nearly highsided out of turn 11 on the first two laps and very nearly crashed in the first one and banged my arms quite a bit. I tried to follow the guys in front but couldn’t push so hard without the risk of crashing so I thought I would bring the bike home as fast as I could to get some points. Assen is the home race for the team and one of my favorite tracks so I’ll go there to do a lot better.

Fabien Foret – DNS
You can guess how disappointed I was to miss out on the race here and to have another weekend with no points. But it is better to go to Assen with the possibility of fighting for 25 points, rather than pick up two or three points here with the risk of further damage to my hand. I wanted to race, of course, but I realize that this was probably the right decision.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Of course we feel sorry for Fabien that he was not able to race today but it was a mutual decision to secure future rounds instead of looking at this particular Sunday at Donington. He should be good again for Assen. We changed Florian’s set up a bit for the race but unfortunately that didn’t work out as planned so he had no chance to move forward. But, we have to realize that he’s a young rider in his learning year so another top-eight finish was a good result. We’ll now head to our home round which is one of both riders’ favorite tracks, as well as the team’s.

2011 World Supersport championship, round two – Donington Park, UK
Results (22 laps, 88.506km):
1 Luca Scassa (ITA) Yamaha 33.40.762s
2 Chaz Davies (GBR) Yamaha +0.270s
3 Gino Rea (GBR) Honda +20.374s
4 Robbin Harms (DEN) Honda +23.469s
5 Broc Parkes (AUS) Kawasaki +24.872s
6 David Salom (ESP) Kawasaki +32.001s
8 Florian Marino (FRA) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +43.826s

Championship points after two of 12 rounds:
1 Scassa 50, 2 Parkes 31, 3 Harms 24, 4 Salom 23, 5 Davies 20, 6 Marino 17

Next round: Assen, Netherlands – 15-17 April.

2007 AMA Superbike rookie of the year Luca Scassa and 2008 AMA Daytona 200 winner Chaz Davies provided an impressive performance to deliver the first one-two race win of the 2011 World Supersport Championship for the Yamaha ParkinGO Team. Scassa delivered his second victory of the season on his 2009-winning YZF-R6 in Donington Park this afternoon, while teammate Chaz Davies took his first WSS podium. The cold air and track temperatures proved no obstacle for the two ParkinGO riders as they got off to perfect starts and continued to dominate the race. Scassa got straight down to business from pole position, putting in a series of consistent laps and proceeding to lead the second race of the season from the start, looking to add to his Phillip Island victory.

Luca’s teammate, Welshman Chaz Davies, put in an equally strong performance. After a perfect start, Davies sat comfortably behind Scassa for the majority of the race, closing in on him with just a few laps to go to battle for first. Settling for second, Davies gained a well-deserved first podium position of the season on his home track, making up for the-less-than perfect race result in Phillip Island last month.

The two Yamaha ParkinGO Team riders crossed the checkered flag with a gap of more than 20 seconds ahead of Gino Rea in third. Scassa now heads to the third round of the World Supersport Championship in Assen leading the classification with 50 points while Davies holds 20 points in fifth position.

Luca Scassa, Yamaha ParkinGO Team, 1st
“I didn’t expect Chaz to be quite so strong going by this morning’s warm up times but he really surprised me with such an impressive performance. I had a perfect start off the grid. I would have settled for second but obviously was much happier with a win. We have won two races out of two and that’s impressive. I’m very satisfied with my bike and team. We are proving to have the best overall package so I’m extremely pleased with this.”

Chaz Davies, Yamaha ParkinGO Team, 2nd
“A One Two win for the team is an amazing result. This shows how strong the package is. With four laps to go I closed in on Luca and tried to get the nose in wherever I could but he was so consistently strong everywhere that it was difficult to pin him at any one point. I had a stab at passing him on the last lap but didn’t succeed. I envisioned two blue bikes on the ground and that’s certainly not what we wanted. I want to thank Yamaha and all my team who have worked very hard to make up for the disappointing race in Phillip Island. “

Lucio Nicastro, Yamaha ParkinGO Team Manager
“We are very happy with the outcome of today’s race. It’s the second race of the season and also the second win for the team. Having our two riders taking first and second is extraordinary. I’m pretty sure we could have gotten this result in Phillip Island but Chaz experienced rear tire problems. He certainly showed his true potential today. I’m confident that this will be a very positive championship for us.”

ParkinGO Yamaha's Luca Scassa takes WSS pole in Donington

Despite the cold weather conditions in Donington Park today the two Yamaha ParkinGO World Supersport riders, Luca Scassa and Chaz Davies completed today’s qualifying session in first and second position, respectively.

After dominating yesterday’s qualifying session, Scassa proceeded to put in a serious of impressive laps on a much colder track to secure pole position ahead of tomorrow’s World Supersport race. Scassa brought home his first victory of the 2011 Championship in Phillip Island and is now heading into the second race of the season with the intention of providing a replica performance.

Teammate Chaz Davies was also on form finishing this morning’s first practice session in fourth and then making further set up improvements ahead of the afternoon’s final World Supersport qualifying session. Davies was clearly at home on the 2009 Championship winning YZF-R6 making full use of the improved settings to top the time sheets in the second session. His combined times means he heads to tomorrow’s race on the front row of the grid, just behind his team mate in second position.

Luca Scassa, Yamaha ParkinGO Team, 1st, 1’31.232
“Today was very important; we worked a lot on our race pace. We didn’t use the softer tires to get a good time in, instead working on preparation for tomorrow’s race. Chaz also attempted to get pole position and he almost succeeded! Yesterday the track had much better grip than today, I think Chaz did a great job to get in such good laps and he’s definitely in with a good chance tomorrow. I think we have the best race pace, so we’ll see what happens. I can’t wait till the lights go green. “

Chaz Davies, Yamaha ParkinGO Team, 2nd, 1’31.250
“We made some great improvements this afternoon. We didn’t get the times I hoped for this morning so I discussed it with the team and decided on a new set up in order to be able to muscle the bike around easier. They worked hard and we got what we were looking for. Considering the cold conditions, being just behind Luca in second place ahead of tomorrow’s race is very good so I’m happy.”

World Supersport Qualifying Results
1. Luca Scassa ITA ParkinGO Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 31.232s
2. Chaz Davies GBR ParkinGO Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 31.250s
3. Sam Lowes GBR Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR 1min 31.368s
4. Broc Parkes AUS Kawasaki Motocard.com ZX-6R 1min 31.645s
5. David Salom ESP Kawasaki Motocard.com ZX-6R 1min 31.963s
6. Gino Rea GBR Step Racing Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.080s
7. Robbin Harms DEN Harms Benjan Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.136s
8. James Ellison GBR Bogdanka PTR Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.153s
9. Florian Marino FRA Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.210s
10. Massimo Roccoli ITA Lorenzini Kawasaki ZX-6R 1min 32.338s
11. Vladimir Ivanov UKR Step Racing Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.694s
12. Fabien Foret FRA Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR 1min 32.707s
13. Roberto Tamburini ITA Bike Service Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 32.917s
14. Vittorio Iannuzzo ITA Lorenzini Kawasaki ZX-6R 1min 32.935s
15. Alexander Lundh SWE Cresto Guide Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.187s
16. Danilo Dell’Omo ITA Suriano Triumph Daytona 675 1min 33.527s
17. Ondrej Jezek CZE SMS Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.528s
18. Ronan Quarmby RSA Suriano Triumph Daytona 675 1min 33.587s
19. Pawel Szkopek POL Bogdanka PTR Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.658s
20. Miguel Praia POR Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.711s
21. Jack Kennedy IRL Colin Appleyard/Macadam Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 33.836s
22. Robert Muresan ROM PTR Romania Honda CBR600RR 1min 33.906s
23. Balazs Nemeth HUN Team Hungary Toth Honda CBR600RR 1min 34.192
24. Bastien Chesaux SUI Moto-Academy Honda CBR600RR 1min 34.316s
25. Mitchell Pirotta AUS Kuja Honda CBR600RR 1min 34.574s
26. Imre Toth HUN Team Hungary Toth Honda CBR600RR 1min 35.183s
27. Marko Jerman SLO MD Jerman Triumph Daytona 675 1min 35.829s
28. Luca Marconi ITA Bike Service Yamaha YZF-R6 1min 36.846s

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Fabien Foret suffered a high-speed crash at Donington Park in the UK at the end of the yesterday’s opening qualifying session for Sunday’s second round World Supersport championship race.

The French rider fell from his Honda CBR600RR at the fast left-hander going down through Donington’s famous Craner Curves. While the bike was badly damaged in the crash, Foret sustained a fracture to the ring finger of his right hand – the same hand he injured badly in a warm-up crash in the opening round at Phillip Island in Australia last month.

Foret, who eventually qualified in 10th place, underwent an operation to pin the finger under local anesthetic at Derby Royal Hospital last night.

His Hannspree Ten Kate Honda teammate, Florian Marino, was 11th fastest today as the 18-year-old from Cannes in the south of France continues his debut season in the World Supersport championship.

Florian Marino – P11
The session was not so good this afternoon. It started OK and I was able to improve my time from this morning but, when I put in a new tire, I hit some traffic and began to make some mistakes. I came in, but I was still making errors when I went out again and had problems with concentration. I think I can go much faster and we need to do a bit more work with the bike, so tomorrow we can try again.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Of course, Fabien wants to ride and after what we saw in Australia, you would not want to bet against it. However, we will let him rest tonight after his operation and have a discussion with him and the medical staff when we find out how he is tomorrow. Florian continues his progress but I am sure there is a bit more to come from both him and the bike tomorrow.

2011 World Supersport championship, round two – Donington Park, UK
First qualifying results:
1 Luca Scassa (ITA) Yamaha 1m31.232s
2 Sam Lowes (GBR) Honda 1m31.368s
3 Broc Parkes (AUS) Kawasaki 1m31.823s
4 David Salom (ESP) Kawasaki 1m31.963s
10 Fabien Foret (FRA) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1m32.707s
11 Florian Marino (FRA) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1m33.007s

Phillip Island was Scassa's first race - and first win - on a Yamaha R6

Yamaha ParkinGO Team riders Luca Scassa and Chas Davies arrived at the Donington Park Circuit with purpose having put on an impressive performance at the opening round of the 2011 World Supersport Championship at Phillip Island last month. Scassa delivered a sensational race victory, using the 2009 World Supersport Championship-winning R6 to its full potential to snatch the checkered flag on his first race with the bike. As a result, the Italian rider arrives in Donington as the championship leader, looking to defend his position, and hoping to replicate the success of Cal Crutchlow who took the R6 to victory in Donington at its previous visit in 2009 on his way to the championship title.

Scassa’s teammate Davies had been on track to share the podium having started strongly however he was one of a number of riders suffering from punctured tires during the inaugural race. Davies will be keen to make amends for this and gain his first championship points of the 2011 season in front of his home crowd at Donington.

Luca Scassa

Yamaha ParkinGO riders Luca Scassa and Chaz Davies wrapped up the World Supersport test at Phillip Island, completing a valuable two days of familiarization with the 2009 championship winning Yamaha R6 Supersport bike. This is only the second opportunity the team and riders have had to spend time with the machines due to the late coming together of Yamaha and ParkinGO.

The team changed suspension partners between tests so this was their first time riding with the new set up. Both riders spent the two days chasing down a set up for the upcoming World Supersport opening round this weekend. Davies testing today was interrupted by a high speed crash after a change of tires, the young British rider walking away uninjured after coming off on a fast right hand corner, crashing at nearly 220km’hr.

Luca Scassa finished the test sitting seventh fastest in the standings with a time of 1’35.272, teammate Chas Davies was in 11th with a time of 1’35.819.

The 2011 World Supersport Championship will witness thereturn of the Yamaha YZF-R6 to the grid with the Yamaha ParkinGO Team. In 2009 the Yamaha YZF-R6 was the track weapon of choice, dominating the World Supersport Championship in the hands of 2011 rookie MotoGP rider Cal Crutchlow. The pairing proved unbeatable with Crutchlow using the full potential of the Yamaha Supersport machine to score ten pole position starts and ten podiums, including five race wins, on his way to the title. The Yamaha World Supersport Team was withdrawn by its owner Yamaha Motor Europe from the championship during 2010.

For the 2011 season Yamaha Motor Europe will provide the 2009 championship winning Yamaha R6 race bikes along with Yamaha genuine racing parts to the privately owned ParkinGO Team, for 2011 to be named Yamaha ParkinGO Team. The race bikes will be refreshed and bought up to 2011 level at Yamaha’s racing workshop in Germany before being delivered. Yamaha technical staff will provide behind the scenes support on an ongoing basis throughout the season while the team itself will take responsibility for organization, rider selection and race entry. The Yamaha ParkinGO Team will continue partnerships with some of its own technical partners, although Yamaha Motor Europe will also support negotiations with it’s former technical partners and the team for the season ahead.

The ParkinGO Team entered the last three seasons of the World Supersport Championship with Triumph, performing strongly in 2010 with four podiums by rider Chaz Davies and a victory at Imola snatched away by technical problems. The season end saw a top-five finish for the team with Davies fourth in the standings and teammate David Salom just behind in fifth. The 2011 line up sees British rider Davies remain with the team, joined by new Italian teammate Luca Scassa who impressed in 2010 as one of the top privateer World Superbike riders.

Team owner Giuliano Rovelli, Chief Executive Officer of Oasi S.r.l. Servizi Aeroportuali, was a rider himself in the early nineties and is involved in a number of activities including the ParkinGO Company, the first network of airport parking facilities in Italy.

Yamaha Motor Europe Racing Manager Laurens Klein Koerkamp:
“This is a great opportunity for officially supported R6 machinery to return to the World Supersport Championship. The R6 is a winning machine which, after taking the World Supersport Championship in 2009, has continued in 2010 with many national titles alongside the European Superstock 600 Championship title, despite not competing at world level. It is our belief and our vision that in today’s circumstances supporting a private team with the materials needed to compete is the appropriate involvement in World Supersport for a manufacturer.
I have known Giuliano for a few years now; in the past we could not find the possibility to do something together. The respect for each other has continued however and when the opportunity became available we were able to come to an agreement within a very short time. It is definitely a challenge to start at this late stage with the preparations, but the team and riders are professional and they will have full access to our information database for setup to progress quickly into the season. We consider the test in Portimao this week mainly as a shakedown for both bike and riders.”

Yamaha ParkinGO Team owner Giuliano Rovelli:
“We managed to reach a mutually satisfying agreement with Yamaha Motor Europe in just ten days time. Having the opportunity to work with a manufacturer that has racing in its philosophy makes a big difference. I shared this important decision with the whole team. Chaz Davies and Luca Scassa are professional riders and are looking forward to having the chance to win the World Supersport Championship with a very competitive Yamaha R6!”

Team Suzuki’s Josh Waters has signed to race for the Yoshimura Racing Team at the opening round of the 2011 World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island in Australia.

“We are extremely excited to have Josh on board,” said Yoshimura Japan President Fujio Yoshimura, who handpicked the 2009 Australian Superbike champion to represent the team on February 25-27. “He is a very talented rider, and we look forward to seeing what he can do at his home track.”

Perry Morison, General Manager, Motorcycles, Suzuki Australia was equally excited about the opportunity for the Suzuki Superbike Young Gun, saying, “We’re really happy that the Yoshimura Racing Team has asked Josh to race at the Phillip Island World Superbike round. The 2010 season was a challenging one for Josh, but he showed what he is capable of by returning from injury to take a race win at the MotoGP Superbike support race. His opportunity with Yoshimura now lets him showcase his talent on the world stage and I can’t wait to see him race.”

In addition to his involvement with the Yoshimura Racing Team, Waters will continue as part of Team Suzuki competing in selected Australian Superbike rounds.