Round 4 of the World Superbike World Championship got underway over the weekend, this time at the Cremona Circuit, Italy. After a successful round out in the Netherlands last time, Tarran was hopeful of adding to his 9 Championship points with two races in the scoring positions.
Tarran kicked off his weekend of racing on Friday morning in the first of three free practice sessions. Tarran worked hard in this session to adapt his bike to the tight and twisty track. Tarran managed 15 laps in the session, posting a best time of 1’31.083 and coming in 21st.
After a short break, Tarran was back out on the track for the second free practice session of the weekend. Tarran made a fast start, almost immediately improving on his time from the morning session. He managed to improve his time by around half a second and came in at 1’30.542, placing him 20th.
The final free practice session got underway on Saturday morning with the track running much cooler than the previous day, meaning the lap times came down. In preparation for this session, Tarran and the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team had to fit a new engine onto Tarran’s bike due to the other one reaching its mileage. Tarran managed to slightly improve on his previous times, but after struggling with the new engine, it wasn’t as much as he had hoped. He came in with a time of 1’30.243, and another 21st-place finish.
Similar to the final practice session, Tarran struggled in the Superpole race to get comfortable with the new engine but managed to fight through and post his best time of the weekend with a 1’29.878 early on in the session. As Tarran got into the last few minutes of the session, he unfortunately crashed at turn two, ending his session a minute early. Despite sustaining bruising to his left foot, Tarran was passed fit to continue the weekend.
Saturday afternoon saw the first race of the weekend get underway with Tarran starting on row eight of the grid. With Tarran making up 2 places in the first few corners, he had little time to make a real push into the scoring positions. Just as he was getting into a rhythm, a technical setback unfortunately forced him into the pits on lap six and retire from the race.
After a quick morning warm-up, Tarran was ready for the ten-lap Superpole race.
As the race went on, Tarran picked up the pace but couldn’t make an inroad into those in front. With two laps Tarran suffered a fast crash at turn 9 and was unfortunately unable to finish the race.
The weekend’s final race got underway on Sunday afternoon with Tarran hopeful of a better finish this time. However, it wasn’t meant to be for Tarran as a crash on turn eight on lap five interrupted his progress. The fighter Tarran is, he tried to re-join the race but was forced to pit with another technical issue with the bike and ultimately retire from the race.
This is what Tarran had to say on the weekend:
“After my most successful ever World Superbike Round in the Netherlands, I couldn’t wait to get back on the bike in Italy. The Cremona Circuit is a tight twisty track that I thought would suit the Honda. I thought we might lose out on the long straight, but I knew the technical sections would be good for me.
Friday wasn’t too bad, but with my engine up to mileage by the end of the day, we had to fit a new one for Saturday. On paper, they should be identical, but I then struggled to find a good feeling with engine braking and corner entry. I stopped in Saturday’s race with a technical issue, but then didn’t really get properly comfortable on Sunday.
My commitment remains 100% as always, so I’m already looking forward to turning things around next time in the Czech Republic”.
We’ll see Tarran next week for round five of the World Superbike World Championship, this time at the Most Autodrom in the Czech Republic.