Pemberton Tyres-backed rider Christian Iddon is upbeat about his chances during the new World Supersport Championship season despite failing to score in the opening round of 2013 in Australia.
Having signed with the ParkinGO team to ride an MV August F3, Iddon went into the opening round of the year in optimistic mood, although a tyre issue at the challenging Phillip Island circuit would ultimately prevent him from securing a solid top ten finish on what was to be a challenging first weekend of the year.
With the bike being early in its development and Christian’s experience of the Australian circuit being limited, tenth in the opening qualifying session was a good start – especially after a crash early on in the first practice session.
A second fall in Saturday practice left Christian with a broken bone in his ankle but with his bike repaired, he was still able to get on track for the second qualifying session – although he was unable to improve his time and finished up 13th on the grid.
Making up a place off the start, Christian ran solidly in a group of riders battling for position and worked his way into tenth spot before he started to suffer from rear tyre wear – an issue that had already led organisers to shorten the length of the race.
Despite his best efforts, the lack of grip saw Christian slip back to 21st place at the finish, although he remains optimistic about the season ahead as a result of his performance on track.
“It’s a bad end to what had been a promising opening round for us,” he said. “The MV has shown great potential and the entire ParkinGO team have worked hard. Something over which we had no control has cost us some decent points today.
“Friday’s first practice session was crazy. I crashed on my second lap, which was not exactly how we wanted to start the weekend. There was something down on the track and loads of other guys went down. We soon put that behind us and focussed on continuing to develop the new bike. I went tenth in the first qualifying session, which was pleasing.
“I had a big crash towards the end of Saturday’s practice session and broke a bone in my ankle. The guys worked superbly to get the bike ready for qualifying, but unfortunately, we couldn’t improve on Friday’s time.
“I had an injection in my ankle before the race, to ease the pain. It felt OK but downshifts were a bit difficult. I made a good start and settled into my rhythm early. I was able to gain a couple of places up early on, and was sat in the group which fighting for fourth. My pace was good and I started to pick-off riders one by one.
“Then suddenly the rear tyre just fell apart. There was nothing I could do. I kept circulating on the off chance that I could squeeze a point but in the end it didn’t happen. It’s a real shame because a top six was a very real possibility and a top ten was looking almost certain.
“This is only the second track this bike has ever seen so the way it has performed here is nothing short of amazing. The ParkinGO MV Agusta team has been fantastic all weekend and I’m sad for them that something, which was totally out of our control, ended our chances today.
“I’ll now try to get some treatment on my ankle before the next test in a couple of weeks.”
