Team HANNspree Stiggy Motorsport Honda news
2008 Supersport World Championship
Round 9, Brands Hatch, UK
Race, 3rd August
Conditions: Dry/Wet, Air: 19 C
Track length: 3.702 kms

DIFFICULT DAY IN DIFFICULT CONDITIONS AT BRANDS HATCH

The eighth round of this year's World Supersport Championship at Brands Hatch today was a complicated story because it was red-flagged twice, the first time because of rain and the second because of a crash. Robbin started from seventh place on the grid, but made a good start and managed to take the lead after just a few laps into the race. Unfortunately it then began to rain and the lack of grip made him loose the front and crash. At the same moment as Robbin crashed, the race was red-flagged due to the amount of water on the track. Robbin thought he could make the re-start, but was prevented from doing so because he had apparently taken a short-cut to the pit-lane that was not allowed, even though no advantage had been gained. Team mate Joshua was able to start the second part in 5th place due to his previous position before the race was red-flagged.

Joshua - 5th
It has been a difficult race day today. In the first race it was all feeling pretty good. I got a good start, but it took some time getting comfortable and I was up to fifth place when the race was red-flagged. In the second race, I had a hard time getting in to a good rhythm. After the interruption, the uncertain track conditions forced me to take it a bit easy and, as a result, I got caught up behind Barry Veneman for too long. I finally got past him and then tried to catch up Parkes in front, but he was already too far away. Then the race was stopped for the second time and I had to settle for fifth place overall.

Robbin - DNF
This is the second race in a row that I managed to put in a great race performance but finished without a result. It is very frustrating and disappointing. The reason I couldn't restart was because I took a short-cut returning back to the pits again after my crash. It was impossible for me to do it a different way and it's not even very clear how I could've done it differently. Obviously, if I knew that I could've been penalised I would have done it differently. It was very frustrating! The race, up until my crash, was just amazing. The bike was working really well and I knew I had so much more to give. When I was in the lead, I was even able to get a bit of an gap between myself and Rea behind me. The only positive thing I can say about this weekend is that I'm happy that my bike is working so well and happy with all the effort my the team put in this weekend.

Johan Stigefelt
Today has been very frustrating for all of us. Not only because they didn't allow Robbin to restart again after his crash, but also because of the second red flag and the bad crash by Craig Jones. The situation regarding Robbin was really a mess from start to finish. The team didn't get any information that he wasn't allowed to restart and the rules concerning riders taking shortcuts back to the garage after a crash are very vague. On top of that, when the second red flag occurred, none of the riders in front of Joshua, who had made a similar shortcut as Robbin had previously made, were penalised. We put in a protest, but were told that the difference was that when the second red flag happened the race was over, whereas when the first red flag came out it was to signal the fact that the race had been stopped and that a restart would follow!