Over the weekend, Tarran was back out on the track for round 6, marking the halfway point of the World SuperBike Championship. This time the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” played host, with Tarran hoping for a better outcome than the last time he visited the track.
Tarran got his round underway on Friday in the first practice session of the weekend. With hot and sunny conditions forecast for the weekend, Tarran and the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team used this session to adapt his bike to suit the track and high temperatures. Using the recent test data as a reference, Tarran managed to complete 18 laps in the 45 minutes he had in the session and posted a time of 1’36.028.
After a short break, the second practice session got underway and with temperatures continuing to rise, it was making it harder for the field to improve on their previous times. However, Tarran managed to shave off a second off of his time, coming in with a 1’35.084 and an end to Friday’s sessions.
Prior to the first race of the weekend, Saturday started with the third and final practice session of the weekend as they prepared for the Superpole race. With slightly cooler conditions in the morning, Tarran managed to find a little more pace and came in with a 1’35.025.
During the 15-minute Superpole race, Tarran completed 6 laps with 3 of those being fast laps. In the final stages, Tarran posted a time of 1’34.385 and qualified in 22nd.
Race 1 got underway on Saturday afternoon with Tarran starting on the 8th row of the grid. As the lights went out Tarran made a quick start making up several positions following a crash involving other riders in front. Tarran got into 17th starting lap 2 but wasn’t able to make much more ground in the rest of the race and crossed the line in 16th, just out of the points zone.
Sunday saw the final day of round 6 with a 10-lap sprint warm-up to kick things off. Starting off in row 7, Tarran made another good start making up 2 places early on before crashing in lap 4. Unfortunately for Tarran, the damage caused to the bike and not enough time to fix, it meant he was unable to take part in race 2.
This is what Tarran had to say on his weekend:
“My weekend was challenging but a 16th in race one was at least a finish in super-hot conditions in Italy. The Superpole race on Sunday was actually looking more positive pace-wise until I found a false neutral causing me to crash exiting the fast right-handers at the back of the circuit. My bike wasn’t in great shape so we opted out of race two as time was running out for repairs”.
Tarran then finished off by saying:
“We’re exactly halfway through the season now so I will do my very best as the year rolls on”.
Tarran and the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team now have 3 weeks off to prepare before a homecoming round at Donington Park.