De Dycker 8th Czech MX1 gate
By TMX Archives on 8th Aug 09
Hot sunshine coated activity at the Loket circuit for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic as Teka Suzuki World MX2's Ken De Dycker guided his factory RM-Z450 to eighth position through the qualification Heat.
The 13th round of 15 takes place across the hard, quick and stony layout in the far west of the country and finding traction and overtaking opportunities proved to be the hardest tasks facing the Suzuki riders.
De Dycker and Steve Ramon never dropped out of the top five in the first two practice sessions. The GP Limburg Grand Prix of Belgium winner switched sprockets and adopted a different rear tyre in search of more grip. Ramon was settled on his race set-up from the first period but like his countryman opted for alternative rear rubber.
The start and first corner was not the best for the Belgians as both circulated just inside the top ten in the formative stages. De Dycker was able to make several positions but overtaking proved tricky and he was not able to rise further than eighth, despite being in close proximity of the second group. Ramon was also frustrated by the lack of valid lines and rode to 11th with similar times to the batch of riders ahead.
The positions should not prove too much of a disadvantage with the long start straight another distinctive feature of the Loket course.
Further good weather with the chance of clouds arriving later in the afternoon is forecast for race-day.
Ken De Dycker:
"It was quite good today. It was pretty hot so I was not pushing too hard. With the bad start in the heat race it was difficult to overtake and if you made a mistake then you lost a lot of ground; the times are really similar. We made some changes to the bike and also changed the rear tyre but I felt like I was losing some ground up the hill so we will try something else for the warm-up tomorrow."
Steve Ramon:
"Things went OK in practice but after that start in the Heat race it was so hard to pass. I was on the gas the whole moto, so it shows just how important it is to make a good start and first half-a-lap. There are not many lines and you can be restricted in what you want to do. We swapped a rear tyre that is better for hard-pack but aside from that we had a decent enough set-up from the first session."
MX1 GP of Czech Republic Qualification Heat classification: 1. Clement Desalle (BEL, Honda), 23:43.004; 2. Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM), +0:04.788; 3. Tanel Leok (EST, Yamaha), +0:07.128; 4. Julien Bill (SUI, Aprilia), +0:22.876; 5. Gregory Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:24.026; 6. Gareth Swanepoel (RSA, Kawasaki), +0:25.105; 7. David Philippaerts (ITA, Yamaha), +0:27.431; 8. Ken de Dycker (BEL, Suzuki), +0:29.892; 9. Antonio Cairoli (ITA, Yamaha), +0:31.164; 10. Manuel Priem (BEL, Aprilia), +0:32.582; 11. Steve Ramon (BEL, Suzuki), +0:35.869.
Team Suzuki Press Office - August 8