18 Mar 2017 Internationally renowned riders join the fray！(ZIC Superbike Race 1000cc Race)

Dark clouds gather soon after the sky begins to brighten up. Today the track condition is worse than in qualifying yesterday. At 13:15 p.m., ZIC Superbike Race 1000cc begin their warm up lap. A total of 18 superbikes are taking part in this race. With many international riders taking part, the average lap time has been pushed up to 1:43s. We are very excited about how this race will turn out.

At 13:18, the race begins. #80 Alex Cudlin overtakes the top 3 to take the lead, but the racing is very fierce and by the end of lap 1, #116 Yamaha MLT rider Mark Aitchison has passed #23 Broc Parkes for the lead with the latter riding a BMW S1000 bike. Mark Aitchison’s first lap took 1:37.045. On lap two Mark begins to pull away. #80 Alex Cudlin is down to fifth place while #9 Huang Shi-Zhao begins to close in on the riders in front of him, especially Kazuki Watanabe.

On lap 4, second placed rider Broc Parkes begins to pick up his pace and moves in on Mark Aitchison. They are 1.1 seconds apart. On lap 5, the order among the top 6 riders are unchanged. #9 Huang Shi-Zhao is still the fastest Chinese rider. His lead over #65 Karl Roe is about 19 seconds.

At 13:30 the race enters its last lap. Mark Aitchison, who is very experienced with the ZIC track, defends his position well to cross the line in first place. His fastest lap is 1:34.113. #23 Broc Parkes finished 2.991 second down in second place on his BMW S1000. His fastest lap is 1:34.026, which is the fastest lap of the race. #8 Alessandro Valia on his Ducati 1299SL finished third with a fastest lap of 1:34.392.

After the race, winner Mark Aitchison said they have done a massive amount of tuning to their bikes since yesterday. Thanks to the team’s engineers, the bike reached a very high standard and he is very proud to have won. Since ZIC is not enjoying stable weather conditions, he hopes tomorrow he can maintain his form from today. There are still many uncertainties for tomorrow but he hopes he can still enjoy the race.