American road racer Kenny Noyes was hoping for cooler temperatures at the Circuit of Navarra, Spain, for the seventh race of the 10-race FIM CEV Superbike Championship. With a track temperature of 90 degrees Noyes was just a few thousands of a second off the pole in morning qualifying, but when the track temperature went to 105 degrees on Saturday afternoon, he lost grip in the front of his Palmeto PL Kawasakio. Similar conditions on race day meant that the team had to switch to a harder front tire that he had not liked in practice.
He got off the line with the leaders, but he and championship leader Ivan Silva (Targobank BMW) both ran wide at turn one at the start of the second lap, dropping Noyes to fifth.
He and Silva battled for fourth until lap 13 when Silva, under pressure, ran off the track again at turn one. Once free of Silva, Noyes ran down Dani Rivas (Easyrace BMW) and took over third place. By that team the leaders, Carmelo Morales (Calvo Kawasaki) and Santiago Barragan (Stratos Kawasaki), were out of reach.
Noyes came into Navarra trailing Silva by nine points, but was able pull to within just four points with three races yet to be run.
Noyes’ teammate Robertino Pietri had set-up setup problems when track temperatures rose. He was sixth, but is still within 12 points of the leader with 75 points still in play.
“For the first time this season we struggled to find the pace we needed,” Noyes said. “I think I could have gone with Barragan if I hadn’t lost time on lap two, but Morales was a little too quick here. My main objective today was to take points from Silva and we were together most of the race. I could pass him, but his bike was faster than ours down the straight so my idea was to leave it for the last lap because he could only pass us at the end of the home straight. I passed him several times to keep him guessing and finally he made a mistake. After that I caught and passed Rivas to take third. This was the track that most worried me at the start of the season. Now the top four are all within 12 points and we have two very challenging tracks, Portimao and Valencia, coming up and we’re feeling good about our chances.”
