News 25 Feb 2018

Penalties elevate West to WorldSSP front row at home

Queenslander to start out of third on EAB West Racing Kawasaki.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Home hero Anthony West has been bumped up to the front row of the World Supersport Championship (WorldSSP) grid for this afternoon’s Yamaha Finance round at Phillip Island.

Penalties were applied to Yamaha runners Federico Caricasulo and Sandro Cortese following qualifying, elevating the 36-year-old from fifth to third in the flag-to-flag affair.

“From the moment we got on the bike Monday in testing we’ve been strong,” West told CycleOnline.com.au this morning. “We’re a little bit down on power, but handling’s good and I’m really happy with it. It’s been full-on so far, but that front row is a bonus, which is perfect.”

West said he’d been preparing to go full distance in the Supersport race, however pit-stops will be mandatory by lap nine due to safety concerns.

“The guys practiced stops 15 or 16 times, so we are prepared for that,” he added. “There’s a lot of math and calculation for the guys. I was a bit upset about shortening the race and I had something to say in the rider’s briefing, so now with the pit-stop I don’t like it.

“We haven’t had any issues, but then again if I had a tyre let go then maybe I’d be thinking differently as well. It’s a bit disappointing for me because I’m always stronger at the end then in the beginning, but we’ll see how we handle the pit-stop under pressure in the race.”

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