Image: Mario Boettger.

World Supersport rookie Glenn Scott experienced his first non-finish of the 2015 season at Assen on Sunday, as clutch troubles forced him out of round four in the Netherlands.

Scott had finished rounds one and two of the season at Phillip Island and Thailand in 14th before slipping to 18th at Aragon’s third round, but had to exit Assen with a slipping clutch.

“Assen has been a crazy weekend for us,” Scott reflected. “Again learning a new circuit was difficult, but I came to grips with the Cathedral of speed faster than previous rounds.

“The team worked amazingly hard all weekend and we made massive gains on the bike with set up across all of the sessions. We made some great breakthroughs with the front-end which have me a lot more confidence with the bike.”

A continued progression through the three free practice sessions saw Scott improve his times by 2.6 seconds across from practice one to practice three, with his quickest time coming in the final run with a 1m41.262s, placing him in 18th overall ahead of qualifying.

A further improvement in lap times in qualifying saw him produce a 1m40.573s, placing him in 18th for Sunday’s race with his time being just 2.5 seconds from pole position.

“I was thankful to find this confidence as Assen is an extremely fast circuit with extremely cold weather so you are riding the circuit based on your individual experience and self-assurance,” he continued. “Qualifying 18th, only 2.5 seconds off pole position which was a great achievement for the whole team and showed we are making progress every time we are on track.”

After scoring an impressive start in the race, the issue of a slipping clutch began to present a growing concern for Scott as the opening laps were completed. On completing nine laps, he was forced to retire from the race.

“I felt great for the race and got an awesome start,” Scott added. “Unfortunately from here things got tough with a slipping clutch, we had to retire the race with nine laps to go. I thought I was going to be able to make the race distance but from lap one we had dramas and I just couldn’t stay with the field.

“It’s disappointing but this is racing. I have to thank my team for working so hard all weekend, this is not the result we deserved. Some more work needs to go into my starts so I don’t slip the clutch too often and also look at what we can do to improve the clutch to ensure we remain competitive in every outing.”

The results maintain Scott’s position in 20th in the series standings entering the next round in Imola, Italy.