MASSEI PODIUMS AT IMOLA
12-05-2014
EAB Racing Team rider Fabio Massei finished second in today’s European Superstock 1000 race at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola in Italy. It was the very first Superstock 1000 podium for Massei and the very first podium for EAB Racing Team since the switch from Honda to the Ducati 1199 Panigale. The Italian started the race from pole position after a dominant performance in yesterday’s qualification session. Only Lorenzo Salvadori on the Kawasaki and Ducati rider Ondrej Jezek were able to follow the rider from Rome. Also in the beginning of the race Massei had a real ding-dong battle with first Salvadori – who had a problem some laps later - and Jezek. Despite the chance of winning Massei decided to take no unnecessary risks and finished the race in second.
Fabio Massei: “Finally we have scored a podium. We have showed many times that we were fast enough for a podium finish, but we never had the luck to do so. The race was very hard because of the strong wind. It was hard for me to find the braking points and that caused some stress to be honest. I would like to thank my team and my sponsors because they have a lot of faith in me. I’m happy for they as well. The next race is Misano, my second home race. Hopefully this podium is the beginning of a lot of success in the rest of the season.”
Alex Schacht ended a hard weekend in thirteenth position and was very satisfied with the result as he had a big crash yesterday. Therefor the EAB Racing Team rider had to start from eight row on the grid. A few problems in the first corners dropped him back even further, but the Danish rider showed his true fighting spirit and was able to recover his hard first lap.
Alex Schacht: “At the end of this race weekend I have to be satisfied with three championship points but my goal for this weekend was to do it better than Assen were I finished in twelfth. But after my crash of yesterday I knew that would be difficult. In the race I had a really good race pace and was lapping faster than the guys in front of me so I know I could have done better. It was a good race with some hard but nice battles. I want to congratulate Fabio with his second place, which gives me a lot trust as Fabio showed that it is possible to be on the podium with our bike.”
Manuel Cappelletti (EAB Racing Team team manager): “We are very happy with the results of both riders. Fabio did a brilliant job and we are very happy with his performance. All the podium finishers are riding Ducati and that shows that we have made the right choice this winter. Alex had to start from 22th on the grid after yesterday’s crash. But it could be worse as he was in 27th position after the first corner. The fact that he – despite this very big challenge - still able is to score championship points, says a lot. I would like to thank all the team members and all the sponsors for this great results. Let’s hope that this is the start of a very special journey.”
Next week EAB Racing Team will start during the Ducati Club Race at Assen. More information about one of the biggest Ducati events in the world is available at www.ducaticlub.nl. The next European Superstock 1000 round is scheduled for June 22 at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Italy.
