MotoGP
Portuguese GP: Ilmor/SRT race notes
Ilmor SRT X" Makes History Estoril 15/10/06: The goal was quite simply to finish the race, Australian ride Garry McCoy went one better putting in a consistent performance to bring MotoGP's newest team Ilmor SRT, their first Championship point and ...
Edited: Oct 16, 2006, 2:06 AM
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Ilmor SRT X" Makes History
Estoril 15/10/06: The goal was quite simply to finish the race, Australian ride Garry McCoy went one better putting in a consistent performance to bring MotoGP's newest team Ilmor SRT, their first Championship point and making history in process - today was the first time a 800cc capacity bike has scored a point in the MotoGP series.
Ilmor and chassis designers Suter Racing Technology (SRT) have worked flat out over the weekend trying to achieve the best possible set up for the team's debut race in Portugal -Their hard work was rewarded this afternoon when the Ilmor X" crossed the finish line.
After starting McCoy made steady progress consistently improving his lap times then overtaking Spanish rider Jose Luis Cardoso. He then went on to slowly close in on Ellison before an electrical issue caused him to pull into the pitlane on lap 18 where the team took data from the bike before sending him back out. During the next lap, the team analysed the data and identified a faulty wheel speed sensor, McCoy came back in and the sensor was disabled before he rejoined the race.
Over the next few days McCoy will continue to put the X" through its paces in Estoril as the team work on increasing the bike's performance ahead of the series finale in Valencia at the end of October.
Garry McCoy, Ilmor X" Rider: "I think I could have had a better start, it definitely wasn't my best however as we went in to turn one all the guys were bunched up anyway which meant I could get on the back of them right away. Before too long I experienced the chattering that we had yesterday but I tried to keep a consistent and steady pace. I managed to build up some speed and even managed to pass Cardoso before I had to take the bike in to the pit lane for adjustments - after that my mission was just to finish the race, to bring Ilmor a point is an even bigger bonus. We have some work to do before Valencia but I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do there."
Mario Illien, Owner, Ilmor: "Firstly I'm happy we finished to be honest, it was a real shame about the electrical issue but I am very pleased about the point. Garry put in a consistent performance and I want to say congratulations to the whole team, they have done a fantastic job this weekend. We have a long way to go but we are learning the whole time. We have some testing time before Valencia so hopefully we'll be in better shape in two weeks time!"
Eskil Suter, Owner, and CEO Suter Racing Technology: "It's good to finish but the race definitely didn't go as planned. The most important thing is that we finished and we scored a point. I'm disappointed that we had the electrical problems but we will work hard over the next few days with testing and let's see what we can do in Valencia. I want to say thank you to the whole crew and Garry for their efforts, they have performed really well."
Steve Miller, Managing Director Ilmor: "After Garry overtook Cardoso, he was slowly gaining on Ellison, I would have really loved to have seen how close he could have got - sadly it wasn't to be and we really suffered with the wheel speed sensor problem. It's great to finish the race so from that point of view I'm pleased. We have a lot of work to do during the testing time between now and Valencia so we can come back with a little more speed!"
-credit: ilmor/srt
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