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18 Maio 2022

Opportunity Awaits Öncü And Montella At Estoril

Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders Can Öncü and Yari Montella approach the third round of the FIM Supersport World Championship at Circuito Estoril in Portugal with a shared determination to score their season best results so far.

Now a seasoned WorldSSP rider despite being only 18 years of age, Öncü has earned two podiums in 2022 already and is now looking for his first win in this category.

Montella is a rookie in WorldSSP terms but he has already put in some impressive rides as he continues to fully understand his machine and its proven capabilities. His best single result of the year to this point is seventh.

The 4.182km long Circuito Estoril has been a happy hunting ground for the Ninja ZX-6R in the recent past, thanks to a win in 2020 for former Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Lucas Mahias, plus three podium finishes for Lucas’ one time team-mate Philipp Öttl between 2020 and 2021.

Estoril will be the first of two Portuguese events this year, with Portimao on the Algarve coast hosting its WorldSSP round in early October.

In the championship standings Can is sixth overall with 32 points, despite two DNFs, thanks to his two third place podium finishes. Yari is 11th overall with 20 points.

The fourth round of the FIM Superbike Championship will take place at the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team’s home round of Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, between 10-12 June.

Can Öncü, stated: “I’m ready to race at Estoril and can’t wait to be back on my bike. I’ve really missed it during this break of almost a month. We have good memories of one race and less good memories of the other so far, but we know we can be fast at Estoril. I can’t wait to get out there and try to score the best possible results for Kawasaki. We’re working very hard to become faster and I hope we’ll be able to fight for the win.”

Yari Montella, stated: “I’m really keen to get back out and race. I’ve trained hard over the last three weeks and now I’m curious to see what we can do at a track where the team has a lot of data and where it has always been competitive. It’s a track where we definitely have the potential to do well. I’ll do all I can to exploit it and be confident and determined, right from the outset.”

2022 rookie Adrian Huertas (MTM Kawasaki) has already shown his speed and quality in the opening two rounds of WorldSSP after moving up from a winning Kawasaki season in the WorldSSP300 category. His immediate challenge is to improve on his current personal best of ninth place in Race One at Motorland Aragon.

Tom Booth-Amos (Prodina Racing Kawasaki) is training to be fit to race again after suffering a lower left leg fracture at the Assen Round. Jeffrey Buis (Motozoo Racing by Puccetti Kawasaki) was declared unfit at Assen, while Australian rider Ben Currie is expecting to race after suffering a pre-season testing injury (Motozoo Racing by Puccetti Kawasaki).

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