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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

30 September 2020

Mahias Ready For Home Race

Kawasaki Puccetti Racing riders Lucas Mahias and Philipp Öttl will compete in the penultimate round of the 2020 FIM Supersport World Championship at Lucas’ home round of Magny Cours this coming weekend. It will present the latest of a few all-new challenges to Philipp in his ‘rookie’ WorldSSP season.

A true home round for Frenchman Mahias awaits him at Magny Cours, one of his favourite circuits in terms of results as well as being his ‘own’ round. He won last year’s WorldSSP race for his current team on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, and has recorded two previous podium finishes in this class at this venue.

For long-time Moto3 and recent Moto2 rider Öttl Magny Cours will be an all-new challenge in his rookie WorldSSP season. He has already risen to the many challenges of his new category well, with three podiums on his record to date– including at the most recent race in Barcelona.

Lucas moved up to second overall in the championship last time out and with Andrea Locatelli already crowned champion Mahias is out to try and win races while consolidating his overall second place in the final two rounds. Magny Cours would be the perfect venue for Lucas to record a first 2020 season race win - especially as there will be limited numbers of spectators permitted to attend at this round.

Currently in fourth place, with 22 points to make up before season end to take over third, Philipp will be looking for more big scoring top three places in France and ideally make that leap to the status of race winner in his first ever WorldSSP season.

After Magny Cours there will be one final WorldSSP race weekend in 2020, at Estoril in Portugal, between 16 and18 October. Once again it will feature two races, which will take the season total up to 15.

Lucas Mahias, stated: “I’m finally home! This is definitely one of my favourite tracks. I’ve won in both WorldSSP and Superstock 1000 classes. Aside from 2018, when I finished fourth in the WorldSSP race, in the last four years I’ve reached the podium each time I raced there. We’re coming from a great weekend where I scored two second place finishes, but I want to win at Magny Cours and repeat the success of last year.”

Philipp Öttl, stated: “The French track is a brand new one for me, but I’m not worried because I’m used to racing at new tracks and also because my team has a lot of data that will be useful in finding the right set-up for me and the bike. I want to continue to do well and reach the podium, like we did at Barcelona.”

Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) swapped a championship-winning WorldSSP300 season in 2019 for a full attack in the WorldSSP class his year. He has shown brightly on many occasions, and sits ninth overall, with a top six finish a real possibility if he continues on his strong upward learning curve. Can Öncü (Turkish Puccetti Racing) is looking forward to another chance to score points in his rookie season, as he is in overall 13th place.

                                     #NinjaSpirit