Moto2 Le Mans: Kenny Noyes Report

Moto2 Report

Kenny Noyes, starting from the pole position in only his third Moto2 Grand Prix, felt comfortable running at the front for the first four laps of the French Grand Prix at Le Mans.

He, eventual winner Toni Elías, and Frenchman Jules Cluzel were running together with in close motorcycle racing formation when Kenny suddenly lost the front on the entry to the Museum Corner and crashed.

There is a slight bump there that has unsettled the Honda-powered Moto2 Promoharris in practice, but this time it produced a front wheel push that he could not catch.

Looking back on the race weekend the Jack & Jones by Antonio Banderas left the Le Mans racetrack pleased with the pole position, the first by an American rider in the intermediate class (250/Moto2) since John Kocinski started from the pole at the Australian 250cc GP in 1990.

Kenny has been strong in the preseason and has fought for he lead both in Spain and in France. The strong performance in Le Mans, in spite of the crash, was especially encouraging because with it Kenny has shown that he can be fast on unfamiliar tracks.

And the next three races, Mugello in Italy, Silverstone in Great Britain and Assen in Holland, like this race, are on tracks where the Kenny has never raced.

The team struggled on Friday but found a good base setting on Saturday for Sunday’s race. The next thing on the "to do list" is to find some needed top speed by working with the aerodynamics.

Kenny Noyes says: "I got a good start and was comfortable running with Toni Elias. I tried passing him a couple of times but he got me right back so I thought maybe if I sat on his rear wheel the two of us could get pull some distance on the pack. The idea was to sit back and follow, even after Cluzel got into the mix, and not take any risks."

"The crash happened on the last curve where there is a little bump where the track has been patched. I had been feeling that bump all weekend and thinking that it could be a problem. I guess this time I was a little quicker when I threw the bike into the corner and it got me."

"It is a complicated track and without a lot of grip, but the fact is I made a mistake and we left town without points. But all in all it was an important weekend for us. We got our first pole and when I crashed out I was running third and feeling comfortable with the pace. This weekend was a big step forward for us."

Le Mans, Sunday, May 23, 2010

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	24	Toni ELIAS	SPA	Gresini Racing Moto2	Moriwaki	150.1	43’29.277
2	20	60	Julian SIMON	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team	Suter	150.0	+1.336
3	16	3	Simone CORSI	ITA	JIR Moto2	Motobi	150.0	+2.831
4	13	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Fimmco Speed Up	Speed Up	149.8	+4.880
5	11	2	Gabor TALMACSI	HUN	Fimmco Speed Up	Speed Up	149.4	+13.293
6	10	40	Sergio GADEA	SPA	Tenerife 40 Pons	Pons Kalex	149.4	+13.415
7	9	14	Ratthapark WILAIROT	THA	Thai Honda PTT Singha SAG	Bimota	149.3	+14.294
8	8	10	Fonsi NIETO	SPA	Holiday Gym G22	Moriwaki	149.3	+14.554
9	7	65	Stefan BRADL	GER	Viessmann Kiefer Racing	Suter	148.8	+23.503
10	6	44	Roberto ROLFO	ITA	Italtrans S.T.R.	Suter	148.8	+23.687
11	5	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Marc VDS Racing Team	Suter	148.8	+23.959
12	4	68	Yonny HERNANDEZ	COL	Blusens-STX	BQR-Moto2	148.7	+24.955
13	3	52	Lukas PESEK	CZE	Matteoni CP Racing	Moriwaki	148.7	+25.068
14	2	25	Alex BALDOLINI	ITA	Caretta Technology Race Dept	I.C.P.	148.6	+26.023
15	1	71	Claudio CORTI	ITA	Forward Racing	Suter	148.5	+28.765
16		6	Alex DEBON	SPA	Aeroport de Castello – Ajo	FTR	148.3	+32.240
17		59	Niccolo CANEPA	ITA	RSM Team Scot	Force GP210	148.2	+33.607
18		41	Arne TODE	GER	Racing Team Germany	Suter	148.1	+34.789
19		12	Thomas LUTHI	SWI	Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2	Moriwaki	147.7	+43.180
20		63	Mike DI MEGLIO	FRA	Mapfre Aspar Team	Suter	147.7	+43.522
21		61	Vladimir IVANOV	UKR	Gresini Racing Moto2	Moriwaki	147.4	+47.761
22		53	Valentin DEBISE	FRA	WTR San Marino Team	ADV	147.2	+51.571
23		39	Robertino PIETRI	VEN	Italtrans S.T.R.	Suter	146.8	+59.692
24		5	Joan OLIVE	SPA	Jack & Jones by A.Banderas	Promoharris	146.8	+59.939
25		88	Yannick GUERRA	SPA	Holiday Gym G22	Moriwaki	146.3	+1’07.377
26		8	Anthony WEST	AUS	MZ Racing Team	MZ-RE Honda	145.9	+1’16.171
27		21	Vladimir LEONOV	RUS	Vector Kiefer Racing	Suter	145.8	+1’16.528
28		95	Mashel AL NAIMI	QAT	Blusens-STX	BQR-Moto2	145.6	+1’20.977
29		76	Bernat MARTINEZ	SPA	Maquinza-SAG Team	Bimota	145.5	+1’22.982
30		77	Dominique AEGERTER	SWI	Technomag-CIP	Suter	138.2	2 Laps
Not Classified
		55	Hector FAUBEL	SPA	Marc VDS Racing Team	Suter	143.2	10 Laps
		75	Mattia PASINI	ITA	JIR Moto2	Motobi	146.7	19 Laps
		48	Shoya TOMIZAWA	JPN	Technomag-CIP	Suter	146.7	19 Laps
		16	Jules CLUZEL	FRA	Forward Racing	Suter	149.1	20 Laps
		19	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Holiday Gym Racing	Moriwaki	148.1	20 Laps
		15	Alex DE ANGELIS	RSM	RSM Team Scot	Force GP210	148.1	20 Laps
		35	Raffaele DE ROSA	ITA	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	147.2	21 Laps
		80	Axel PONS	SPA	Tenerife 40 Pons	Pons Kalex	130.1	21 Laps
		9	Kenny NOYES	USA	Jack & Jones by A.Banderas	Promoharris	148.1	22 Laps
		72	Yuki TAKAHASHI	JPN	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	147.9	22 Laps
		17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	FTR	99.2	25 Laps