MV Agusta at the Assen Superbike races

MV Agusta Reparto Corse - Yakhnich Motorsport

Assen, Netherlands

3 round

Superbike

25 - 27 April 2014

Superbike Race 1 unexpectedly took place on a dry track so the riders were able to battle it out under the best possible conditions. For much of the time Claudio Corti was straddling 16th place, but in the second half of the race he started closing the gap between him and the group in front and then managed to bridge it entirely. In the closing stages of the race the rider from Como was lapping about half a second faster than the three/four riders preceding him, but an early red flag meant he had to be content with 14th place. In Race 2, in the wet, Claudio was clearly demonstrating both his own racing talent and the excellent set-up of his F4 RR (from both a suspension and electronic viewpoint) as, lap after lap, he made his way up the field. Unluckily, when Claudio was in ninth place, the transponder caused him to fall. The lithium battery inside the transponder exploded so the latter stopped sending the control unit the signal indicating the bike’s passage over the finishing line; this put the entire electronic set-up out of phase and Corti suddenly found he had no traction control. Hence the inevitable fall.

Claudio Corti: “We were really unlucky! The morning race wasn’t easy. Our goal has always been to stay ahead of the EVOs. We’d almost reached them but, just as the opportunity for us to attack came, the race was interrupted. I reckon I could otherwise have gained at least three more positions. In the afternoon things got even more complicated as we have no racing experience in such tough weather. I started in 17th place, but still managed to climb back to 9th. We were in the top ten, ahead of the EVOs. Unfortunately we hadn’t reckoned with the compulsory transponder. Its internal lithium battery exploded so the transponder stopped working and failed to send the control unit the over-the-finish-line signal; this sent all the electronic set-ups haywire. I found myself cornering without traction control and that’s why I fell. I’m also really sorry for the team because they worked their hearts out this weekend.”