Press Release From Q.M.M.F 19th June
New seating position helps Anthony West – Elena Rosell happy about strong race finish
Anthony West’s 27th and Elena Rosell’s 31st place at the British Grand Prix were far from the results the QMMF Racing Team riders are aiming for, but the mood in the team was still good and upbeat after the chequered flag came down. Both riders had improved their lap times in comparison to the practice days and both riders had learned things about the bike that are going to help them in the races to come.
Anthony West – 27th
“We have to be happy with the lap times, they were not so bad even though we are still far away from where we want to be. I struggled all weekend with lots of things. There is not one thing in particular that is wrong with the bike, there are a lot of details combined. One thing was that I didn’t have any feeling for the front until the warm-up. We realized we were far from the right balance of the bike in the corners, so we put ten millimetres of seat padding on, which improved things. It sounds like a silly thing to do, but I immediately started to feel what the bike was doing. The front being light in the corners is quite a common thing with the Moriwaki and this track makes the problem worse, so shifting my position on the bike a little bit helped a lot. In the end, the times were not so bad, but I still have a huge problem with the speed. I was getting passed by my old MZ bike on the straight and I shook my head because it was so frustrating! Once again it is not one problem in particular but a combination of exhaust, body work, air intake and fairing that is just not getting us the speed we need!”
Elena Rosell – 31st
“We managed to get a race finish which is good because it gave us more experience with this bike. Anthony and I managed to do better lap times than yesterday, which is also a positive thing and gives us a bit more confidence for the races to come. Of course you would like to achieve more as a rider, especially when you know you could do better than that, but we just have to continue to work and to keep our heads down even though we suffer a bit. Now we’ll see what the next race at Assen brings. At least, I have been there before and I know the track. It won’t be easy, but I am determined to keep learning and to keep improving!”
