WorldSBK Communications

Riding alone means twice the challenge for a MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship racer, but Loris Baz (GULF Althea BMW Racing Team) seems to be coming to grips with the situation quickly. At Assen, the French rider scored his two best finishes since returning to the grid, showing good pace and a competitive spirit all weekend.

  #raceweek Sur un circuit magnifique Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola ! Vivement Vendredi :D A post shared by lorisbaz (@lorisbaz) on May 9, 2018 at 1:19am PDT

Baz last rode at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola in 2014, crossing the checkered flag fourth in both races. He also finished second here in Superstock 1000 in 2012, just before making the jump to WorldSBK.

While some of the WorldSBK teams went over to Brno to prepare for this weekend’s race, GULF Althea moved things a little closer to home, opting instead for Magione, just a couple of hours south of Imola. There, Baz was able to gain some valuable insight into what will be needed to close the gap with the higher positions on the grid: “We had a positive test last week and I’m pleased with the progress made in terms of the electronics and the swing-arm. Now we need to see how things work at Imola. We’ve also made some improvement in terms of the wheelie-control, which will be important this weekend, so I’m pleased with the work completed with the team and the BMW technicians”.

Baz now sits ninth in the championship, just one point off Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing): “I’m looking forward to seeing how much we can reduce the gap, it will be interesting, also because I haven’t ridden at Imola since 2014”.