This weekend the eighth round of the FIM Supersport World Championship will be held at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France. It is the start of a busy period for Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing with three race weekends in September, entering a crucial phase of the season.

After a three-week break, Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing returns to action this weekend at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours. The 4.4-kilometre French circuit, with nine left turns and eight right turns, is a fixture on the World Superbike calendar where exciting races often take place. With slow and fast corners, long straights and hard braking points, it is quite a challenge for both the riders and the bikes.

Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing comes to Magny-Cours in good form with Stefano Manzi having finished on the podium in the last four races and Glenn van Straalen having finished in the top nine in each of the last five races. During the previous race weekend, the gap to the championship leader was reduced and that will also be the aim this weekend for the Nieuwleusen-based team.

Stefano Manzi: “Finally we get to go racing again, I don’t like staying at home for such a long time. Between the Portimão race weekend and now, we worked hard on our preparation for the next couple of rounds in order to be as strong as possible. This will be a very important month because we will have three rounds. I hope to start in a good way in Magny-Cours, if we do well on Friday then we have better chances on Saturday and Sunday as well. Hopefully the weather will be good and let’s try to achieve the maximum results.”

Glenn van Straalen: “I am really looking forward to racing at Magny-Cours this weekend and starting this final phase of the season. We had another few weeks of rest so now it’s nice to have a lot of races in a row. I hope we can maintain our form that we also had in the previous race weekends. Magny-Cours is a good circuit for me so I think we can show our good side there.’

Kervin Bos – Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing team manager: “We have arrived at the final phase of the season and are now going to have race weekends in quick succession. Both our riders were very strong in Portugal and it seems that the momentum is now starting to fall our way a bit. Magny-Cours is a circuit that suits both riders well and also suits the Yamaha YZF-R6 well. It remains to be seen what kind of weather conditions we will face as it looks a bit changeable at the moment. It could just be another typical Magny-Cours weekend with rain, sunshine and all kinds of conditions. Either way, I’m very much looking forward to going on the attack this weekend.”

The race weekend at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours starts with free practice on Friday morning, followed by the Superpole session at 16:00h in the afternoon. After a warm-up session on Saturday morning, Race 1 will start at 15:15 in the afternoon. On Sunday, there is a different schedule and Race 2 will be run as early as 14:00 after a warm-up session in the morning.