Round 2 of the World Superbike Championship took place over the weekend, this time at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, in Portimão, Portugal.
Tarran kicked off the weekend on Friday morning in the first of three free practice sessions. Tarran made a good start, using data collected throughout the session to make set-up changes on his bike. Tarran finished the first practice session in a solid 14th place and a time of 1’42.167.
After a short break, the second free practice session got underway on Friday afternoon. Tarran and his PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team made a few modifications to the bike during the afternoon session, with Tarran improving in the latter stages. Tarran came in with a best time of 1’41.904, placing in 18th.
Tarran used Saturday morning’s third and final free practice session to make some last-minute changes to his set-up. Tarran was able to improve on both of his Friday session times, managing to post a 1’41.741.
After a quick break, Tarran was back out for the Superpole qualifying sessions. Tarran was able to set a 1’41.414 on his first lap, even though he went on to complete a second attempt, it was his initial time that remained his quickest. This result saw him qualify 20th for the first of the weekend’s races.
Saturday afternoon saw the first race get underway, with Tarran making a good start and was quickly up to 17th. Less than a second from the points zone and lapping slightly quicker than those around him, Tarran moved into 15th. Tarran continued to push hard managing to secure a 14th-place finish and scoring his first championship points of the season.
Just before the last race of the weekend got underway, Tarran and his team used a short warm-up session to make final changes ahead of the race. Tarran again started from 20th and held the position early on, starting to up the pace as the race went on. On lap ten, a crash for another rider meant that the race was brought to a halt with a red flag. With the race restarted a short time later and reduced to 11 laps, Tarran started 18th but was able to gain a position almost immediately. Tarran’s race was then briefly interrupted when he crashed at Turn 3 on lap nine but was able to rejoin and reach the finish line, in 17th.
This is what Tarran had to say about his weekend:
“My bike set up for race one gave me the confidence to push over the opening laps and at last enjoy mixing it with a few riders over the twenty laps of Portimão. A few fallers helped but I still worked hard throughout to finish 14th at the chequered flag.
As always we were looking for improvements but unfortunately made some set-up choices for Sunday that didn’t work. Two crashes in the following races meant no more world championship points, however, I was very grateful to go home uninjured”.
We’ll next see Tarran on the track for round 3 of the World Superbike Championship in 2 weeks’ time at the Pirelli Dutch round at the TT Assen Circuit.