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Iglesias Bravo Wins And Podiums At The Misano Crucible
The weather was hot and the action even hotter at the third round of the WorldSSP300 championship which was held between 14-16 June at the much loved Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’. The track’s location very close to the Adriatic coast of Italy, and with several holiday resorts very close by, makes this a memorable race for riders and fans alike, almost irrespective of the race results.
Some Kawasaki Ninja 400 riders had good reason to be particularly happy this weekend, as Daniel Mogeda (Team 109 Retro Traffic Kawasaki) secured his first ever Superpole pre race ‘win’, while Inigo Iglesias Bravo (Füsport - RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki) took away full points on Saturday after his victory in Race One.
He also left with the championship lead in his possession.
The race action is taken as seriously as ever at Misano, even at this ‘holiday race’ and Misano’s flat but unique layout ensures that riders can pass on the straights but also into the many varieties of corners. The fast ‘Curvone’ is well named as it is a particularly long curve on a WorldSSP300 machine, but there are smaller and tighter corners throughout, including the sometimes race-defining last slower corners of the final ‘Carro’ section.
Superpole qualifying, which now takes place on Friday, not the Saturdays of previous seasons, saw Daniel Mogeda (Team 109 Kawasaki) head up the entire grid. This was his first career success in Superpole qualifying, but the 34th by a Kawasaki rider.
The first 12-lap race of the Misano weekend was an eventual two-rider fight for the win - even if that gap back to third place was just 0.308 seconds.
Eventual winner Inigo and his rival Aldi Satya Mahendra crossed the line together after an intense fight for supremacy on the final lap.
The original result on the TV screens was given in favor of the Yamaha rider, but after the photo finish check the win went to Iglesias Bravo. His margin of victory was a tiny 0.007 seconds.
This was his second race win in his career, and the second of the season.
Also on the Saturday podium was Mirko Gennai, who fought hard from the fifth row of the grid to get into near-touching distance of the podium top two. Mirko, riding at his home round, enjoyed his first podium of 2024 as he understood his Ninja 400 better and better with each outing. He has ridden a different machine for all his WorldSSP300 career but as his podium demonstrates, he is learning at a very fast rate.
Jose Manuel Osuna Saez (Deza - Box77 Racing Kawasaki) was fifth in Race One, and still less than half a second from the winner.
Loris Veneman (MTM Kawasaki) placed seventh, putting four Ninja 400 riders inside the top seven places. Loris had qualified in 17th place in Superpole, making forward progress difficult in the heat of each 12-lap race.
Bruno Ieraci (Team ProDina Kawasaki) was 12th and Fenton Seabright (Kawasaki GP Project) 13th, making them the final two Kawasaki points scorers.
Under new sporting rules for 2024 the rider who set the fastest lap of Race One gets to start Race Two from Pole position, with the next eight fastest lap setters in Race One lining up behind. Hence Gennai launched from the leading grid spot at the start of the 12-lap Race Two.
The first laps of the second race were contested by strong riders from each of the four competing manufacturers, with Race One winner Iglesias Bravo frequently in the lead. The hard battles at the front saw the leading group 16-strong at times, in what was a full pace wall of noise and color in the shimmering 27°C heat.
A quite astounding display of controlled aggression in the final few laps from the leading riders saw positions change even in the final few desperate corners. A final margin of victory from race winner Aldi Satya Mahendra to third placed Iglesias Bravo was just 0.128 seconds. Jeffrey Buis finished second on his KTM.
Behind the podium trio the next best Kawasaki rider was Jose Manuel Osuna Saez in seventh. He finished up just over half a second from the victor. Gennai was ‘only’ tenth despite finishing a slim 1.131 seconds behind the leading rider.
In 12th place, Veneman scored a few more points for his overall championship campaign. No fewer than 12 riders were categorized by the official championship timekeepers as having finished in the same leading group after some truly frantic action.
Bruno Ieraci was 13th, Fenton Seabright (Kawasaki GP Project) 14th and Ivan Bolano Hernandez (Deza - Box77 Racing Kawasaki) 15th, and the final points scorer on the last day of action at Misano.
An unlucky weekend for Petr Svoboda (Füsport - RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki), saw him crash and suffer a displaced lower leg break in Race One.
In the championship points standings, the strong podium rides put in by Iglesias Bravo this weekend see him lead Mahendra by 12 points, 98 to 86, after three rounds and six races have been completed. Daniel Mogeda is third with 63 points, Veneman is fourth with 56 and Svoboda sixth with 53.
The Manufacturers Standings still favor Kawasaki, with the famous manufacturer leading Yamaha by 23 points after three rounds and six races.
Füsport - RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki still leads the Team’s championship, sitting 21 points ahead of their nearest rivals.
With no WorldSSP300 action scheduled for the Donington Park WorldSBK weekend the next round for the ‘300’ riders will be at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic, between 19-21 July.
Rider Comments
Daniel Mogeda (Team 109 Kawasaki), stated: “Winning Superpole means that of course I was very happy. It is incredible. When I was young I used to dream about having this kind of thing in front of all my people and my friends. It is incredible for me so thanks to all of these people. This is my job but this Superpole is for all the other people.”
Inigo Iglesias Bravo (Füsport - RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki), stated: “When I spoke with the team on Thursday I said this was a track we can show our true potential at. It is a tricky track, hot and difficult. So that if we could get a good result here we could get a good result in the championship. Thank you to my hardworking team and we are always in the points, and to all the people who are supporting me. I made a good strategy and pushed totally in the last lap. I finally got the decision on the last straight and the race win. Third is OK on Sunday because I made a small mistake when I came back from the back of the grid. I said to myself I should be calm and then after a little bit of time I started to push. I made my own pace but in the last lap I made one mistake with the gears, so Jeffrey and Aldi overtook me. But it’s good points for third.”
Mirko Gennai (MTM Kawasaki), stated: “I am very happy to take this podium here in Misano because it was a fantastic race. It was difficult because Inigo and the other rider in the lead pushed quite a lot. In the middle of the race there was a little bit of a gap from me to the first group. I tried to push to close the gap and I did the lap record for the circuit on my own. That was difficult because it was hot. In the last corner I really tried to take a podium because it was a difficult start to the new season, with a new team and a new bike. It was not easy. So I changed my style of riding the bike a little. Now I am on the podium, so I have come back!”
Loris Veneman (MTM Kawasaki), stated: “The weekend was quite difficult. I had speed and pace but I had to start from P16 in Race One so it was not easy to come back. The track was really hot and I was missing a bit of rear grip. I got seventh place which is OK. Due to the new rules about Race Two grip positions being about Race One’s fastest laps, we didn’t get one of the nine fastest laps, so I still had to start from P16? I got stuck in a group and I was 12th. There was not a big gap to the front but the potential was not shown 100%. But we are focused on Most and will test there next week.”
Bruno Ieraci (Team ProDina Kawasaki), stated: “Saturday was a difficult race. Qualifying penalized us a bit, and the long lap penalty made everything even more complicated. Despite these difficulties, I managed to maintain a good pace during the race. I think without the penalty we could have had a better result. I want to thank the whole team for their tireless work and constant support. Their dedication is key to meeting these challenges.”
