Two-time MotoAmerica Supersport Champion and four-time Superbike race winner Garrett Gerloff experienced an ever-changing landscape of track conditions aboard his Kawasaki WorldSBK Team Ninja ZX-10RR on day one at the fifth round of the FIM Superbike World Championship at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic.
For the Texan, it was his first time ever circulating the 21-turn, 2.617-mile circuit aboard a Team Green bike, and he faced a significant challenge because the track surface started off damp and a little dirty, which made Friday morning’s FP1 session particularly difficult for all of the WorldSBK riders.
In fact, the conditions proved to be even more complicated than anyone could have expected, and there were several big crashes from some top WorldSBK names, which led to four separate red-flag stoppages.
The afternoon’s FP2 session began with track conditions far from ideal again. The Double-G remained positive, and he and his crew worked methodically on finding a set-up for Saturday’s first race of the weekend. At the end of the day on Friday, Gerloff was 16th overall on the timing sheet.
“It was a bit of a crazy opening day because of the weather,” Gerloff said. “Those were not the easiest conditions to try stuff in. But, in the end, we did get two fairly dry sessions, which was nice. I was just trying to get used to the bike at this track. We did not make a whole lot of crazy-big changes, but I am feeling better, lap-by-lap. At the beginning of the second Free Practice session I saw my name closer to the top, and I was thinking, ‘OK, here we go…” Then, I started moving back down the order, but I didn’t feel so bad. Let’s see if we can improve a little bit on Saturday.”
Following Saturday’ morning’s FP3 session, Superpole Qualifying will determine final grid positions for the afternoon’s 22-lap Race One. And then, on Sunday, after morning warm up, there will be a 10-lap Superpole Race followed by the 22-lap Race Two, which will wrap up the weekend.
