|
QMMF Racing Team rider Roman Ramos thrilled the crowd at his home race the Grand Prix of Aragon with a fantastic battle in which he stormed from 29th place on the starting grid to cross the finish line in an impressive 18th position. |
The 23-year-old from Santander started well and lost a few positions after a small mistake, but bounced back even stronger and looked especially well towards the end of the race, when he kept a hard-charging group of up to nine other riders under control.
Teammate Anthony West was determined to make up for a certain lack of engine power that he had noticed in practice. Pushing even more than usual, the 33-year-old Australian was in 17th position when another rider closed the door during a pass, sending West flying over his handlebars.
West’s bad luck at the Grand Prix of Aragón came one week after a fantastic success in France, where the 33-year-old Australian and his QMMF Racing Team partners Alex Cudlin and Mashel al-Naimi finished fourth overall at the 24 hours of Le Mans, won the classification of the Superstock category and celebrated second place in the Endurance World Championship.
When it started to rain during the event, West was by far the fastest of all riders on the track. The Australian rain king, who had never competed in a 24-hour-race before, clocked lap times with his Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10-RR that were up to five second quicker than his next rival.
“I am happy with the way the bike was handling in the race. The guys did a great job setting it up, it felt good and the handling was fine. Just the engine was slow and I had to push harder to make up for it,” West said.
He took the blame for his racing coming to an end quickly. “Mattia Pasini and Axel Pons were fighting right in front of me and went quite slow through the chicane, so I thought that was my chance to pass them. As I went for it, one of them closed the door and I ran straight into the back of the other one. I had a big highsider and went flying over the top of the handlebars. It was my fault, I was just getting a bit too impatient because my bike was slow. I had a lot of opportunities to pass the other riders, but with my lack of engine power I would always losing the gap that I just made up. Eventually, I tried to make a pass that didn’t happen. I definitely could have scored points, because I was faster than the three in front of me. It just didn’t work out and I am sorry for the team that I crashed out. But that’s racing,” West added.
Meanwhile, Roman felt he could have finished higher than 18th place if he had not committed a small mistake. “It was a tough race. I started from way back on the grid, but I had the hope and the determination to fight and to gain as many positions as possible. I had a good start and went through the first corners okay. Later on, I made a mistake whilst following Salom and I lost a few positions again.
“Without this mistake I could have been higher up in the classification and achieved a bit more. But all in all I am happy with my race. Our final position is not too bad and matches my best result of the season. I would have loved for the race today to be my best ever, but in the end, it was not possible. I have mixed feelings, satisfied and at the same time a bit disappointed because I wasn’t able to fight for points. But I battled, I gave 100 per cent throughout the race and I will confront the next three races overseas in good spirit,” he added.
