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675s in the Qatar Desert

5766 Views 26 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  catweazle
With triumphs lining up on the first world supersport grid of the year in 7th 8th 11th and 29th with excellent showings from both the SC and Italia BE1 outfits.
Garry McCoy was leading the way for the triumphs parking his bike 7th on the grid just 0.8 seconds behind the pole man Fabien Foret.

As they lined up in the bright light of Losail in the Qutar desert, 36 bikes glistened awaiting the green light.

After a fraught start seeing a breakdown and a crash after just two corners, McCoy settled into 10th position halfway though the lap. Craig Jones and Foret are fighting for the lead swapping position time and again.

McCoy crossed the line in 9th for the first time, with Aitchison pushing close behind in 10th.

Second lap Johnathan Rea highsides in spectacular fashion taking out his team mate Andrew Pit demolishing both Hanspree Hondas. In the chaos Gary McCoy jumped to 5th place.

After four laps there was a strong showing from the 675’s with McCoy sitting in 6th place just 3.8seconds behind runaway leader Foret. Aitchison was fighting hard in 8th place just two more seconds behind McCoy.

McCoy not happy to settle in on his Daytona 675 was fighting constantly with Brookes on his Honda CBR600RR. On lap 5 McCoy got the better of Brookes to gain 5th place, but lap 6 saw an uncharacteristic error dropping him to 7th with Aitchison following closely. Pushing hard Aichinson couldn’t hold it sliding off into the desert gravel. Leaving McCoy in 7th and Clementi in a promising 12th. Dionisi was also putting in a strong performance with 22nd place at the halfway stage.

Lap seven and McCoy retires to the pits with technical issue. Leaving Clementi as the top triumph in 11th position. Clementi had managed to pull out a three second gap from 12th but had also dropped two seconds from the British legend Chris Walker in 10th.

As the race progressed Clementi began to loose ground to Vixxiello and Leblanc dropping to 13th heading into the last lap.
During the last lap Foret was leading by some margin when he sat up mid corner and slowed dramatically. It appeared that the Yamaha R6 had run out of fuel just half a lap from the chequered flag. A three was dash for the line ensued with Parkes pulling out from the slipstream taking the flag from Lascorz just meters from the line. Brittan’s Craig Jones was close third less than a second off first place.

The triumphs of Clementi and Didnisi came home a fantastic 12th and 21st respectively. The 4 points for Clementi placed triumph in 5th place in the manufactures championships.
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Guys, my point simply was that with an ex-MotoGP star like McCoy on the 675 there are high hope here for the 675 performance... But he pitted for the race, even though he was well into the top 10 during his few laps... What if he had finished???

The other 675 riders, who are they? McCoy will be the only serious high placing finisher on the 675 this season that you can bet on. Also, the 675 is not a new bike anymore, and with experience already in British Supersport and the Triumph Triple Challenge, is it really too much to expect that it will be able to make 18 laps in a race at this point?

I don't know why McCoy and most of the others pitted (yet) but certainly thought more would finish and especially hoped McCoy would have finished (and stayed somewhere in the top 10). But that didn't happen and so, I as a 675 owner was disappointed in race #1 of the season.
Devilfish,

1.McCoy WAS a GP racer, but he is now most probably much slower than in his glory days in 500cc or even in WSBK, considering his age. Mark Aitchison will probably soon be faster than Garry, as he is a very impressive young rider.

Clementi is very fast, he was a Superbike Kawasaki Bertocchi rider for years, and last season he did very well aboard the BE1 Triumph in its first European and Italian supersport season. He will remain in history as the one who has scored the 675's first world championship points.

Ilario Dionisi is the one finding it difficult to match the pace of the other Triumph riders, but he was fast in Superstock 1000. Prior to Qatar, he had almost never tested the 675 nor even a Supersport bike, so it is normal that he needs so more time to get into the top-15. I'm confident he will do it.

2. I can't understand how you could be deceived by the Qatari week-end: Aitchison, Clementi and McCoy were immediately fast in qualifying, and McCoy was fighting for 5th when he was forced to pit due to a overheating issue. Aitchison did not start as well as his compatriot but he was already 10th and closing on the riders ahead of him when he crashed.

Both Italians had a steady race, with Clementi finishing 12 and Dionisi among the backmarkers, but still only one of the 4 Daytonas had a technical issue.

If you want to compare with Ducati, then you have to dig in your archive to find out what were the results of the make in the first 15yrs of its history. Ducati was already an immensely experienced make when the WSBK was created 20 yrs ago, as it was already racing L-twins 20 yrs beforehand!

Triumphs of Meriden have been racing for decades, but Triumph of Hinckley have a very small experience of racing.

That's the reason why I am very impressed by the results achieved and even more by the speed showed by both BE1s and SCs Triumphs, and I'm sure McCoy and Aitchison will be even stronger at Phillip Island...
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