Hunter Su continues to develop his skills after the most recent round of the CMV – Copa Honda 250R Challenge saw him contest the races held at the Catalunya MotoGP circuit in Barcelona.
The Team China rider, the only non-Spaniard in the series qualified16th for the weekend’s two races, both held on Sunday 19th July.
Su who has been a regular point scorer in the series found himself riding in a group of slower riders in the latter part of qualifying, preventing any further improvement before crashing out of race 1, failing to finishing despite making it back to the pit lane in an attempt for some minor fixes.
Race 2 gave another opportunity to challenge for additional points to add to his already impressive rookie tally and after an encouraging start and equally impressive opening couple of laps things were looking good as Hunter began moving forward through the pack. His early pace however wasn’t to last as his Honda CBR250R began to cut out as the gear lever worked itself loose, possibly due to the earlier race 1 incident. He eventually finished 17th.
Hunter Su – Team China: “The weekend started out pretty good during practice and with 3 sessions on Saturday, it was enough for me to get used to another new track and find a good bike set-up. I felt really refreshed and ready to push hard in qualifying on Sunday morning. After getting caught up in a bunch of riders I pushed hard at the end of the session and managed to qualify 16th. I knew I could go faster, so was optimistic for the races. I made a so so start in Race1, but was able to pass riders at every single comer in the first half lap, and before the ‘La Caixa’ corner, the front pack was not far from me anymore! After setting up for the next turn another rider went to the inside and took out both himself and the rider in front of me. With two bikes on the ground there was no way for me to avoid crashing. Fortunately didn’t hit the riders, just the bikes. I ran to the bike as fast as possible, thinking that I could possibly get back on and finish and maybe score a point but the shifter was stuck. I pulled in into the pits, my mechanics were 100% ready with the tools, but the crash pretty much destroyed the linkage so that was that. The start in race 2 was great, a little wheelie off of the line but I shot away like a bullet. Maybe I should do more wheelies next time! We think due to the crash from race one the bike keep cutting out as the race went on, so despite my great start eventually the pack caught up with me and I was not able to push how I wanted to. At the flag I was classified 17th. Not the best weekend, but for sure I’ve learned a lot again! I’m going back to China for August visiting the family and to train harder. I can’t wait for the next round at Motorland Aragon. It would be nice to be back in the points there!”
The next round of the championship takes place at MotorLand Aragon before which Hunter will return to China to visit family and friends.
