WorldSSP – The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team build useful experience at Donington
Round six of the 2023 Supersport World Championship has now drawn to a close for the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team at Donington Park and riders Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin.
The 19-lap race got underway according to schedule at 2.30pm local time and in dry, cloudy conditions. From fifteenth on the grid, Mackenzie got caught up in traffic through the first corners and slipped back to twentieth. The Brit was doing his best to find a rhythm that would allow him to stick with the riders in his group but a mistake on lap nine caused him to lose further ground. With several seconds separating him from the rider immediately ahead, Tarran was unable to close this gap in the time remaining, lapping with very similar pace to his closest rivals. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda rider didn’t give up and did what he could over the final laps, making up one position to close the race twenty-third.
Competing at Donington for the first time this weekend, Norrodin made up a couple of positions in the opening stages but was unable to match the pace of more experienced riders ahead of him. Determined to complete the race so as to have as much useful data as possible, the young Malaysian ultimately crossed the line twenty-sixth.
As this sixth WorldSSP round draws to a close, Mackenzie positions twentieth in the general standings with 15 points, while Norrodin lies twenty-third with 9 points. The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda team will next compete over the weekend of 14-16 July at the Imola circuit in Italy.
Tarran Mackenzie
“On the first lap Sofuoglu ran me off the track and then when I came back on, there was one rider that I lost time in passing. Once I got past him, I felt like I had good pace and in fact I was catching the group in front. I thought I’d be able to finish in the points, but then I hit neutral and ran off track again, which caused me to lose too much time that I could not recover in the second half of the race, so all in all it wasn’t the race I’d hoped it could be. It’s all experience anyway and now we move on to Imola.”
Adam Norrodin
“This has been quite a tough weekend, especially with me not knowing the track at all. It’s been good to get some mileage under our belts here and I’m pleased to have finished the race, but it was really challenging. I tried to stick with the group but I struggled to match their pace, even if I could catching them a little through the turns. There were points where I felt like I was really on the limit, and I really didn’t want to crash so I managed the situation so as to be able to cross the line. As always, we’ll take what we’ve learned here and try to apply it the next time out. I want to say a big thank you to my entire team too, as they continue to work really hard for me.”
