Two but overall, Misano was Balda’ s worst weekend of the year and it saw him fall away to 7th in the championship, 47 points behind Montella. It shows how much we’ ve come to expect of Balda this year that this is a real disappointment.
MACKENZIE, BRIDEWELL On the other independent Ducatis, Taz Mackenzie didn’ t let the long lap penalty he was handed in Race One distract him and he went on to score in all three races, the highlight being 5th in Race Two but Superbike Advocate’ s Tommy Bridewell, who’ d shown so much at the last round, couldn’ t repeat the performance and wasn’ t able to crack the top ten in any race.
OLIVEIRA, VAN DER MARK At BMW Motorrad WorldSBK, Michael van der Mark had deputised for injured Miguel Oliveira at the previous two rounds but with Oliveira returning at Misano, VDM swapped over to the other side of the garage and subbed for the still injured Danilo Petrux. Oliveira improved steadily through the weekend. 8th in Race One and 6th in the Sprint race were impressive results although his return to the track was cut short when lingering pain in his shoulder forced him to retire from Race Two. On the other side of the BMW garage, VDM’ s weekend was less rewarding with 9th in Race Two his only scoring result.
YAMAHA, HONDA In the factory Yamaha camp, Andrea Locatelli had his best weekend of the season, nailing three top ten finishes which, given the performance deficits of the Yamaha, was an excellent result for him. He was showing a lot more fight at Misano than we’ ve seen for a few rounds whilst Loka’ s teammate, Xavi
KIWI RIDER 45