Arriving in the Superbike World Championship from the sixth event – out of a total of thirteen – Loris and his Ten Kate team pulled out all the stops to impressively manage to finish in the final top 10, out of 18 permanent riders.
From the second round at Misano, Loris finished in fourth position, which was again the case subsequently at Donington and Magny-Cours. The end of the season looked good, but a crash on the high side in Argentina during the Superpole, followed by another during Race 1, complicated things on a physical level for the strong Savoyard.
Loris, how can you achieve good results when you start in the middle of the season, without either you or Ten Kate really knowing the Yamaha Superbike?
“We will say that it was not easy! We had so much desire and motivation that we immediately hoped to play up front, but it's by having this kind of season that we realize that winter testing is important. »
“Despite everything, what we have done in such a short time proves the quality of this team which very quickly adapted to bikes that it did not know. After two weekends, we managed to understand how this motorcycle works. So it wasn't easy, but at least we did it, and I think we did well. »
When you arrived at the Jerez race, did the two Yamaha teams there (Crescent – official – and GRT – satellite) welcome you with open arms and help, or did they just see you as another opponent?
“These teams are supervised by Yamaha which imposes certain things. Yamaha put in a lot of effort and we were able to benefit from the recorded data of the other two teams, so we could be competitive straight away. »
“Using data from other Yamaha riders helped us a lot. These are essentially Eric de Seynes* and
Andrea Dosoli** who made this project possible. I thank them greatly because nothing could have been done if just one person had stopped or not given their consent. »
“It was a bit of a crazy project and everyone had to give their all. In the end, it was largely thanks to Yamaha that it happened.”
*President of Yamaha Motor Europe
**Yamaha Motor Europe Road Racing Manager
During the last round at Losail, you fought well with Michael van der Mark, who had a factory bike. Do you think your two machines had roughly equivalent performance?
“Yes, almost. I don't think there's a big difference on the bikes. They are very similar, although now Ten Kate started working on his own. »
“We saw in Qatar that I lacked top speed, but all the Yamahas lacked it, and in fact if we compare to the Ducatis, all the others lacked it. »
“Actually in the second round, we made good progress. I especially lacked grip coming out of the last corner, which made it difficult for me to accelerate. »
“We lack a little aerodynamics because we haven't had time to work in this area, where I think there is something to gain. The only slight difference that there is perhaps with the official team is in terms of electronics where I think they can do a little more things than us at the start. It's mainly regarding the start, with the maximum power and the maps* that they are a little better than us, but there are few differences between the bikes. »
*Cartography
Was it an advantage for you to be the only driver this year in the team, or would you prefer to have a teammate as will be the case next year?
“This year, it was good to be alone because it already required so much energy to launch the project and make a motorcycle that it would have been complicated to have two riders. »
“On the other hand, it will be good next year to have a teammate. It's always important, even for the team who realized during the crash in Argentina that we move a lot of equipment, and that if a rider gets injured, everyone returns after the weekend without having done anything. So it's important to have a teammate. »
“For a pilot, it’s also important to sometimes work together. It's now so trivial that we see that the details make the difference. Being able to work with someone while making even more comparisons can be important. »
“And for Ten Kate, which is the great Superbike team, it's nice to see it present again with two riders in Superbike, Supersport and Supersport 300. It's also good for the image of the Championship. »
You were able to compete in the Bol d'Or with Mandy Kainz's YART team. Unfortunately it ended with a big fall with Erwan Nigon on the oil lost by the Honda TSR, leading to the abandonment of three official motorcycles and favoring the victory for Suzuki. Do you think you will participate in other endurance races, if the calendar allows?
“I want to do it because endurance is a discipline that I love. These are races that I really enjoy, but my speed program takes priority. My team must Ten Kate agree, let everyone concerned agree.
“I am convinced that I can do both disciplines when the schedule allows it. For the moment, the calendars are not out, so it will be in case a team needs me, in case the YART extension would need me for an event and I would be available, it would be with pleasure because it is a discipline that I like. »
“And I like to go shopping. If I could do this every weekend, I would be in heaven! »
How do you see 2020 and what are your hopes?
“2020 started in 2019 for us, because the idea of the project was to start this year to find out what we would need for next season. We will start winter testing soon in Jerez at the end of this month.
“The objective next year will be to compete on the podiums regularly, to be in the top 5 and to have a very good season. We identified our weak points this year and we will work on them this winter.
“We could have had one or two podiums this year with better starts. We're going to work on that and on a lot of little things that we're gradually understanding about this bike. For the moment we have only done two days of testing and since Portimao we have not been able to try anything on the bike due to the weekends being a bit complicated with the changing weather. So it will be good to have a full winter season where we can work calmly. I know that the team has a lot of ideas to try and that I will have a lot of laps to do in Jerez. But I can't wait to be there! »
Above: Loris asking Randy de Puniet for an autograph, at the time when he was riding a 250. Here in 2003 at LRC (Lucio Cecchinello).
Photos © Yamaha Racing, Ten Kate, Baz Family Archives
