[mickey]

CHECA: “This is a difficult moment for me, I cannot remember when I had a worse feeling in a race and this is not the result I wanted. Everyone in the LCR team has worked very hard over the weekend but we could just not find the balance or feeling that gave me any confidence to push. It is not fun to race like this but now we must look forward and hope the situation can improve.”


Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (15th position)
“It was a very frustrating and difficult race for me. I said yesterday that I had a good feeling in hot conditions but we just didn’t have that today for some reason. When I pushed hard the bike would run wide in the corners. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and having more time out on the track so we will be working hard again to make more improvements. This is important as we still have a further two races to come this month.”

KENNY ROBERTS Jr - 16th position
Kurtis did really good. He was much quicker than I was in the beginning of the race and I was squaring off all the corners and I couldn't get any grip to stay with them guys. And then my bike...the power started coming around, the grip level started getting closer front and rear.
Just was trying everything I could to get up with him. Once I got within a second, from then on I was just trying to pass him, if he made a mistake at all. And he didn't make a mistake, didn't get off line. He was braking hard, going through the corner the same speed as me, but
accelerating smoother, because I was trying to get a jump on him, so I would just spin. And I finally was able to get a draft off him down the front straight. And then I concentrated on Carlos (Checa) ahead and then he had something go wrong with his tire or bike.

KURTIS ROBERTS - 18th position
Yeah, it was the first time I've ever been in front of Kenny. That probably screwed me up more than anything, because I thought I heard him back there. But what really screwed me up halfway through the race, just for like a lap-I thought he was right behind me the whole race-and it was plus 1.6 seconds. Because I'd see his lap times and I wasn't paying that much attention to the lap board at first. And I would see he'd have a faster one than me. I figured he'd be right behind me. And then he kind of caught me off guard. And trying to catch (Carlos) Checa, I started rushing everything a bit. I just didn't have any grip from the start. I was just hung out to dry, just sliding the thing everywhere. I knew I was catching Checa, but Kenny, when he passed me, I thought I screwed up. I didn't even realize he was towing me along that good. But it was fun. When you watch Little Kenny, he's Mister No Mistake and I make a lot of mistakes.