It was the Motul Czech round over the weekend where the Autodrom at Most played host to round 5 of the World Superbike Championship. Tarran has some fond memories of this track, winning his first World Championship race in the 2023 World SSP, all the way from starting in 22nd. Hoping to rekindle some of that Most magic, Tarran knew he’d have to be at his best to repeat his triumph.
Tarran got to work on Friday morning in the first free practice session of the weekend. With cool, windy and wet conditions on the track, Tarran made some slight tweaks ahead of the session. To go along with the difficult conditions, it was made even more difficult with the session red-flagged 4 times following incidents with other riders. Tarran managed to complete 18 laps of the session, setting a best time of 1’33.890, placing him 17th but only 2 seconds behind the current leader.
After a short break and as Tarran was preparing for the second free practice session, the rain once again returned. Tarran ended up waiting for the rain to die down and the track to start drying out before making a move. Once he did, Tarran worked hard and soon improved his previous time, setting a fastest time of 1’33.190.
After wet conditions in both sessions on Friday, Tarran was able to enjoy some dry track time on Saturdays third and final free practice session of the weekend. Prior to the session, Tarran made further tweaks to his bike with his PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda team in preparation for the Superpole race. This tweak managed to help Tarran set a new best time of 1’32.660, placing him 20th.
After an hour break and some final changes being made, Tarran started the 15-minute Superpole race. However, things didn’t go as planned as Tarran crashed on turn 2 and was forced back into the pits. With only enough time to complete a few more laps, Tarran managed to get back out on the track and post a valid qualifying time of 1’32.384. On Tarran’s last lap of the session trying to beat his time, he had a heavy crash exiting turn 21 but luckily walked away unhurt. However, as a result of the crash, Tarran and his team decided not to take part in race 1 and instead prepare for Sunday’s Superpole race and main race.
Ahead of the Superpole race, a warm-up session was in place but proved no use due to the wet conditions, with Tarran choosing not to ride. 2 hours later and a now dry track, Tarran got the Superpole race underway and managed to hold his position well off the line. Although Tarran rode a very consistent 10 laps throughout the race, he wasn’t quite fast enough to break into the group in front and ended up finishing 21st.
The final race of the weekend got underway on Sunday afternoon, which saw the race run in dry conditions once again. A crash going into turn 1 in front of Tarran saw him move up into 19th with eyes on the group just ahead. However, Tarran had little time to get in any sort of rhythm as a crash on lap 3 ended his race early.
This is what Tarran had to say on his weekend:
“The Most circuit in the Czech Republic is special for me after winning the Supersport World Championship race there back in 2023. It’s fast and flowing, which is a layout that suits my style, and I was hopeful it would be good for the MIE Honda Fireblade, but it wasn’t to be.
In the first practice I had some gear shifting issues, then an electronic setting in the second free practice that wasn’t working for me.0
In qualifying I had a weird crash in the opening lap then another in the final lap that destroyed my bike. I felt pretty rough and with a mountain of work for my mechanics we decided to sit out race one on Saturday.
I was good to go for the Superpole race on Sunday, but with so little quality practice, it was a case of running around and bringing the bike and myself home in one piece. I decided to push on a bit in race two, but again crashed in the early laps with zero warning.”
We’ll next see Tarran out on the track next week for a 2 day test out in Italy at the Misano World Circuit in preparation for round 6 at the World SBK taking place at the same circuit.