Nagashima sixteenth in Sunday’s final race at Jerez
HRC test rider Tetsuta Nagashima just misses the points zone in the final WorldSBK race of the season at Jerez, placing sixteenth.
Competing as a wildcard in this final round of the 2024 Superbike World Championship season at the Jerez Circuit in Spain, Tetsuta Nagashima has enjoyed a very productive and informative race weekend, which concluded today with the Superpole race and the last of the season’s full length Superbike races.
The day began with a short warm-up, in which Tetsuta made final preparations for the day’s races, based also on the data collected yesterday. Lining up in twentieth position for the ten-lap Superpole race, which ran in dry conditions, the Japanese rider soon moved up into eighteenth place. Running at the front of a group of four riders, he ran a consistent race but was unable to close the gap to the big group of riders ahead. Holding eighteenth until the penultimate lap, Tetsuta ultimately dropped one position but worked hard all the way to the line, the last lap of the race proving to be his fastest.
Race 2 ran in warm, sunny conditions, with Nagashima again starting from twentieth on the grid. Making up one position early on, Tetsuta held nineteenth through the first half of the race. Putting together a consistent race, the Japanese rider made a little more progress in the latter stages of this 20-lapper despite a drop in tyre performance, climbing to seventeenth across the line. He was promoted to sixteenth after the race concluded when a rider ahead of him was disqualified.
Superpole Full Results Courtesy of DWO
Race2 Full Results Courtesy of DWO
Tetsuta Nagashima 49
“We decided to go into the Superpole race with the race tyre, while almost everyone else was on the Q; we wanted to keep working and trying for Race 2. Eventually, we finished P19, again ahead of some of the regular riders. In Race 2, I was feeling I could do better at first, but when the tyres started to drop off, I could not manage the situation so well. That was problem of mine, but we also need to improve the bike in this area as well. But anyway, in general, it’s been a very good experience. Thank you to Honda, HRC and the Team because we’ve had chance to understand several things that lapping and testing alone do not necessarily allow for. Racing with the WorldSBK field was very useful for our work, and we’ll harness this as we move forward.”
