The ninth round of the 2013 World Championship was held at the historic Maggiora venue in northern Italy and the natural hillside track proved to be an inspired choice and a hit with many of the riders and spectators alike.
Barragan loved the track and after looking really quick in pre-qualifying he was soon in the mix in the qualifying race. After starting in 11th he moved through to 9th but clashed with Desalle and went down. After picking himself up he rode with great spirit, moving back up to 11th by the finish. Matiss Karro found it a bit harder to master the tough circuit but battled hard to take 17th.
Karro got a good start in moto one and was holding 11th but Barragan was well out of the top 10. Barragan was just behind Tommy Searle and he stuck with the Brit and moved through the field. His race was to last for only ten laps though – being forced to retire with a mechanical problem.
After his good start Karro improved still further, moving up to ninth on lap two and staying on the tail of Boog, while keeping a gap from Simpson, Goncalves, Guarneri and Searle. He held firm for 13 laps before a small mistake cost him a couple of valuable seconds and that’s all it took for him to lose three positions. He was then left to fight for 12th place with Goncalves which he succeeded in doing, giving him a great result after such a short time back from his recent wrist injury.
In moto two Barragan was out to make amends for his first race no score and made a good start in 12th and moved through to 11th on lap three. He looked like he meant business as he closed in on Simpson in front. But after making a couple of unsuccessful attempts to pass the Scot he tried winging around the outside on the long sweeping turn after the start, only for Strijbos to sneak up the inside, leaving him in 12th rather than the 10th position he looked destined to take. This seemed to knock the stuffing out of him a bit and he lost a little pace and with it another couple of positions.
Barragan managed to gain a couple of places back towards the end to take a hard-fought 12th, for 17th overall.
Karro, who started in 16th was pushing in the other direction and it wasn’t long before he was on the back of his team-mate, however his wrist was starting to feel the effects of two tough races and he was struggling to hold on. The inevitable mistake wasn’t far off which cost him a couple of positions and he made the smart decision to settle for the six points on offer for 15th, giving him 13th overall.
“Feeling good all weekend but first the broken bike and in the second one, 12th is ok but nothing special, I feel more confident and stronger on the bike. We now have three GPs in a row, so I hope to take as many points as possible, said Barragan after moto two.”
“This weekend was good, I enjoyed the track and my wrist was much better,” commented Karro.
“I made a couple of mistakes and lost some positions but I had two solid races. Towards the end of the race, I could feel the wrist and needed to be careful so I slowed down.”
Team Manager, Steve Turner concluded: “This weekend was a big improvement on last week and could easily have been a great one for the team, but a bike problem with Jonathan in the first race cost him dear. In the second race, small things had a big effect on the final outcome, like losing a place to Stijbos while he was trying to pass Simpson meant Jonathan lost his forward momentum just when he was looking really fast and aggressive.
“Matiss had an awesome first race and looked like he may hold ninth all the way to the flag but just one small error removed the gap he had hung onto for so long,” added Turner.
“However 12th was still a great result. In the second he didn’t start as well and was charging forward until his wrist started to weaken and he had to back off; he’s using his head more now and took the sensible decision to settle for 15th instead of pushing too hard and risking injuring himself.”
