Broc Parkes and the Ten Kate Racing Products World Supersport team are preparing for round three of the 2012 championship this weekend (20-22 April) at Assen in The Netherlands.

The Dutch round represents a ‘home’ race for the team, which is based approximately 60km to the south of the 4.542km Assen circuit where Parkes and his team will be looking for a good result to make up for the disappointment experienced in the last round at Imola in Italy.

Despite qualifying well, Parkes was forced out of the race after just five laps with a destroyed rear tyre. He was able to re-join the race and established a new lap record but, despite passing several riders, he could not finish in the points, let alone match his podium finish from the first round.

Broc Parkes

We had a day’s testing the day after the Imola race and everything went really well. It was our first real test of the year and we tried some things that you just don’t have time to try during a race weekend. So it was good to get more time on the bike there and get something close to a base setting. The Assen test last week wasn’t so good because the weather was mixed and cold, so we didn’t get a whole lot more done. But Assen’s been good to me in the past so I’m looking forward to racing there this weekend. After Imola, I need a solid result and a handful of points to get me back into the championship, but it’s a long season, so I’ll go into the weekend as relaxed as possible.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager

At Imola, we were at the front, just like we were in Phillip Island, but the race in Italy was ultimately very disappointing. The test on the following Monday confirmed that our direction was correct and Broc was able to go even faster and break the lap record again. At Assen last week, we were able to confirm a couple of things so were looking for more of the same this weekend and, as Broc says, we’re aiming for a solid result.