Pierre Texier crashes in the last lap of a race in twists while ranking fifth.
Two weeks after the Aragon round we find the European Superbike Championship paddock back in Barcelona.
Upon our arrival we take delivery of the fork prepared by a company from Barcelona.
We will use the F1 layout, a decision taken by the FIM following the tragic accident of Luis Salom the previous week.
Barcelona is not usually a technical circuit, but this slow section and a large extra braking at Turn 10 are favorable to Pierre.
The circuit as always lacks of grip, especially in hot weather. Michelin proposes for front the medium or hard and for the rear medium that we used to Aragon, the medium hard assymetric that others have used to Aragon and extra hard that nobody uses.
So we have lots of work ahead for the six sessions of free practice.
Thursday free practice.
It's nice and warm. First run with the bike in the configuration of Aragon to seek the gear on the new layout and have a reference behavior.
Second run with new unsetted fork. Pierre leaves for three laps, the first one is completed a second faster, yet another second faster in the second, half an extra second for the third...
Pierre returns with a big smile and a slider elbow to change.
It turns out that our initial settings are good for now, here is a weekend that starts well.
Other sessions are devoted to various chassis settings tests with various tires, working on engine braking to a gain of about one second.
Friday free practice.
We work mainly on electronics, we have a problem of grip and wear of the rear tire.
The muffler of the exhaust caught fire on each return to the pits. Carburetion is good, the engine temperature too, it's quite strange.
We are forced to stop our tests and find a solution. We have no spare parts and no one in the paddock is what repair the silent, I have to go into town to find supplies in a motorcycle shop.
Fortunately the LeoVince titanium silencer of last year mounts to the Akrapovic tube, we simply need to adjust the collar.
We take our tests, the exhaust is not even red color when Pierre returns, so the problem comes from carbon silencer overheated ... amazing.
We hang on the shock absorber settings, it does not allow us to go in the desired direction but we are improving anyway our laptime about one more second.
Saturday qualifications.
We made a big change to the geometry of the chassis in the hope of finding more traction. We can not go back in the session.
Pierre fate for three laps with a new rear asymmetric tire. His time is remarkable, it is in the same thousandth from Rodriguez on the first two sectors! It is hampered in the last and looses one second on Rodriguez whose scores a small 51.
Pierre laps in 52.5, he ranks second and then he cuts his effort and returns prematurely because he feels the transmission chain too relaxed.
This messes up a bit our plans, we had planned to mount a medium tire late in the series to see if it would go a best time but we make the decision to mount it right away, it will be a mistake because the behavior of the bike will change considerably and Pierre will not be able to improve his times who where far from his possibilities in the session start.
Pierre is only eighth, we are disappointed to have mismanaged the session.
There remains one session, probably slower if the temperature keeps rising, but we hope to catch up to us.
The bike is returned to the initial configuration, with the exception of a small electronic engine brake adjustment.
Back from his first run Pierre complains enormously of the bike, it brakes poorly, refuses to turn, is very violent in acceleration.
No adjustment really provide a solution because we do not understand the radical change of behavior! The session goes on, Pierre is twelfth, tenth to the combination of the two, we are dismayed ...
After studying the data we suspect very strongly the little engine brake adjustment to be at the origin of all these problems.
If our choices are very often paid this time we made two mistakes in both qualifying sessions! It is not our day.
Sunday, Warm-up we used to validate the behavior of the front, the rear tire is completely worn out after just fifteen laps.
We found a bike that brakes and turns again :-)
Again, the fuel consumption is limit for seventeen laps race but what worries us most is the lack of resistance of the rear tire, the race end will really be difficult for Pierre.
The modification of turn ten made it dangerous, as we have seen on other races. Hard braking, downshift until first gear, a tight turn which forces to return very late, synthetic grass at the exit, there is no margin for error.
There is much to lose by taking risks here, Pierre will be cautious there but what will others do? ...
The race finally arrives, will all this work pay? Pierre is on the third row on the outside line, he must not fail to start well.
He seems sereint on the grid, he well managed all his departures so far.
This time we will not pass on TV, we're too far, the cameraman prepares to film us and then withdrew from the grid. We evacuate our turn, it is the moment of truth.
Pierre takes a good start and manages well the first turns, he ranks seventh.
He undergoes muscular attacks of Norwegian Plassen including in turn ten... he does not pass, they lose time, it goes behind.
Pierre loses a place in the third round, and the red flag is out! Back to the box.
We see on the video that the Finn Makinen jumped from his motorcycle down the pit straight, where Pierre takes 295km/h!
Surely a brake failure. It was the only thing to do but to jump off the motorcycle at 300 must be a sacred cold blood.
Makinen's bike has damaged an inflatable protection which resulted in the race stop of the time to replace it.
We make minor adjustments. Regulation 2016 does not allow us to change the rear tire during a red flag, it only remains to wait for the new start.
I remember Peter the new special starting procedure in this situation. Finally screens inform us, Pierre will start from eighth position to a seven-lap race!
A good start again for Pierre! He is fifth for three laps. The Argentine Pierluigi is faster, it takes the fifth position to Pierre and creates a gap.
At fifth lap some competitors already have tire problems, Plassen to follow Pierre anymore, Pierluigi also slowed, Kuparinen does not, he goes on Plassen and Pierre.
At the begining of the last lap Pierre overtakes Pierluigi at braking but undergoes a simultaneous attack from Kuparien! He immediately get his rank back on the next left turn, he is now fifth, it remains less one turn to hold.
Pierre Texier, Europe Superbike championship in 2015 ->
At turn five, the back of the bike slips abruptly, Pierre can not avoid the crash! Kuparinen pass him close!
The race is over for Pierre, he escaped with a few burns and a huge disappointment, everything wiped 10 turns from the finish it's annoying but that's bike racing.
The next round will take place in three weeks in Albacete.
The video of the race is visionable.
We thank our partner KART System and our technical partners, LS2, Pam Racing, Poupiz Performance and Louit Moto.