Photography courtesy Palmeto PL Kawasaki
The race for the FIM CEV Repsol International Superbike Championship will all go down to the final race of the season in Valencia on November 16, with American Kenny Noyes in the thick of the championship battle.
Noyes (Palmeto PL Kawasaki) equaled Ivan Silva (Targobank BMW), his chief rival in the FIM CEV Repsol International Superbike Championship. Both riders took a second and a third at The Circuit of the Algarve, Portimao, Portugal, and that moved the American into second place in the points standings, only four points back of Silva with a single race to go. Unlike the two men who went into Portugal ahead of him in the points table, Silva and Santiago Barragan (Stratos Kawasaki), Noyes had never raced on the challenging Portuguese circuit.
Race one was won by former CEV Champion Carmelo Morales who finally pulled clear of a scrap with Noyes, Silva and Noyes´ team mate, Venezuelan Robertino Pietri. All four riders exchanged the lead several times with Noyes moving from fourth to second on the last lap.
Noyes jumped quickly into the lead coming off the second row in race two, but realized after a lap that the set up that had worked so well in race one (raising ride-height front and rear) was now causing the bike to run wide on the final corner due to increased side wind.
Noyes was losing three to four tenths a lap in the final corner and gradually dropping back from Morales, Silva and Pietri. Pietri was pushing Silva as Morales inched away when the Venezuelan´s Kawasaki struck gear selection problems, forcing him to retire, his first DNF of the season. This stroke of bad luck eliminated him from the title chase.
“This is the hardest weekend we have had all year,” Noyes explained. “On Friday we were off the pace and I wasn´t comfortable with the bike or this new roller-coaster of a track. The team really worked for me. They pulled me through and Michelin helped me understand what we needed to do to get drive.
“Everything we did worked in race one and I was able to make a big move at the end to move up from fourth to second. I was feeling that in race two I might be able to win, but then the wind came up. I was running the bike very high and the wind started pushing me wide and leaving me with no feel in the front. It was really hard for me to accept that I had to back it off, but if I hadn´t, I think I would have crashed.
“Robertino was really fast today in the second race and if he hadn´t had that little problem, I think he would have had Silva in race two.
“Now it all goes down to just one day…kinda reminds me of the AMA Dirt Track Amateur Nationals where it’s all on the line in a single race.
“Valencia is not my favorite track, but it is a great place for a showdown. This is what you race for, to be where we are with a single race to go. I won the Bancaja Superstock championship there on the last day of the season in a situation just like this one a few years back, but both Morales and Silva have won there too, so it will be a real dogfight. “
Although the title looks to be between Silva and Noyes, both Barragan (trailing by 21 points) and Morales (trailing by 24) conserve remote mathematical options to the title with 25 points still in play at Valencia on November 16.
Results:
Race One: Morales, Noyes, Silva, Pietri, Barragan
Race Two: Morales, Silva, Noyes, Rivas, Rodriguez
Championship Points: Silva 144 (1 win), Noyes 140 (3 wins), Barragan 123, Morales 120 (4 wins), Pietri 109.
