After visiting the podium in the two previous rounds, Pata Honda rider Kyle Smith is looking for a third consecutive visit to the rostrum at this weekend’s World Supersport championship fifth round race at Imola in Italy.
The 23-year-old British rider, who has been based in Spain since the age of six, took his Pata Honda CBR600RR to third place in the last round at Assen in the Netherlands, adding to his first podium of the season at Aragon in Spain two weeks earlier.
World Supersport rookie Smith sits in joint third place in the 2015 championship standings as he adjusts to the sophisticated and powerful Pata Honda CBR600RR package that won last season’s series in the hands of Michael van der Mark.
But although he professes to liking the 4.936km Autodromo Internazionale Enze e Dino Ferrari, set in the heart of Imola just 45km from Bologna in northern Italy, Smith has crashed out of his two previous races there.
Kyle Smith I really like Imola and I think that, like Assen, the track will suit the CBR, which is hopefully a great starting point for the weekend. I’m quite happy with the season so far and it was great to be on the podium in the last two races, but I want more. I’m here to win races and so that’s what we’re aiming to do at every round now. If everything goes as I’d like this weekend, I won’t be making the mistakes that allowed the front two guys to get away in the last couple of races. But I’m battling with some very fast and very experienced riders and if you make just a tiny mistake it can have big consequences. So I’ll work hard with the team from Friday to make the bike as ready as possible for Sunday because that’s the day that counts.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator We’re really looking forward to this weekend with Kyle on the CBR600RR at Imola. After his performances and podiums at Aragon and Assen, we think we can continue in the same way and be a regular podium contender from now on. That’s where we are at this relatively early stage in the season because Kyle has made such good progress. He’s maturing really quickly and showed this at Assen where he was very fast and able to close on Sofuoglu and Cluzel during the race. It’s a good position to be in.
