Former AMA Pro Flat Track Rookie of the Year PJ Jacobsen to Head Up Honda's Efforts in 2016 World Supersport Championship

Jacobsen to spearhead Honda’s World Supersport assault in 2016 Patrick ‘PJ’ Jacobsen and the Honda World Supersport Team are ready to challenge for top honours in the upcoming 2016 FIM Supersport World Championship campaign. The 22-year-old from Montgomery, New York, will line up alongside compatriot and World Superbike rider Nicky Hayden in the Honda garage to ride a Honda CBR600RR prepared by Ten Kate Racing, with the goal to become the first American rider to clinch the ultimate prize in the series. Last year, Jacobsen joined the Honda family from the seventh World Supersport round onwards. Since then, he rose to the status of championship contender by winning two races and finishing on the podium five times out of six rounds. He eventually ended the season in runner-up spot, and also added two pole positions and two fastest laps to his impressive racing CV. The opening round of the World Supersport season will take place at Phillip Island on February 28th and it will be preceded by a two-day official test on the same track, scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday. PJ Jacobsen: “I feel really good going into the new season with Honda and I can’t wait to get started. It’s great to have the opportunity to race with Honda and Ten Kate. The goals for the season are high; I finished second in the championship last year, so the only thing left is to get the number one spot. It’s not going to be easy as there are a lot of competitive riders out there this year, but the key will be to be riding at the front, race in, race out. I intend to take every round as it comes though, starting at Phillip Island of course. I would like to thank Ten Kate and Honda for this opportunity; we’ll do our best to make our fans proud!” Ronald ten Kate: “We’re happy to confirm our World Supersport effort for 2016. PJ’s perseverance has been rewarded and I believe we have now have the team, the bike and the rider to do well this year. We already tested with PJ before Christmas and he knows the bike inside out, so hopefully we’ll be able to be competitive straight away. I’m really looking forward to the start of the season. I would also like to give a big thank you to all the sponsors who kept believing and supporting this project.” Marco Chini, Honda's WorldSBK Operations Manager: “We’re happy to have PJ under Honda’s wing for the 2016 season. Last year he showed everybody what he’s capable of and he surely deserved this new shot at the title. PJ’s talent, combined with Ten Kate’s vast experience in the series, make us very confident for the season ahead.” Copyright Free Images All information © Honda Racing 2016 For more copyright-free media please visit media.hondaproracing.com or email media@hondaproracing.com

Team Pata Honda Suffers 2 Top-10s and 2 DNFs at Motorland Aragon World Superbike Round

Motorland Aragon - Spain    12.04.2015                 Tough day in the office for Pata Honda duo The third-round of the World Superbike championship this weekend has been a challenging outing for Michael van der Mark and Sylvain Guintoli at Aragon, Spain.   Over the weekend the team strived to improve and find the optimum setting for the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP around the 5.077km circuit.   In the first of two 18-lap races, van der Mark was forced to retire due to a small technical problem on the tenth lap. The second race saw the SBK rookie make a gallant attack moving up from his starting grid position in 11th to sixth place, but on the last lap had to settle with eighth.   Meanwhile van der Mark’s teammate Sylvain Guintoli finished race one within the top-ten taking ninth place after making his way forward from his qualifying position in 14th. During the second installment he had made his way up to tenth but crashed out of the running on the sixth lap after loosing the front.   The team will now take and analyse all the data collected from each session this weekend in preparation for its home race at Assen, the Netherlands next weekend 17-19 April.  Michael van der Mark  - DNF     8th I felt quite confident going into race one today, but I knew I had some work to do starting from 11th. My lap times were getting better and better and I was improving on each lap, but unfortunately we had a small technical problem, which meant I had to finish the race early. Race two was better, I managed to get up to speed quickly and move further forward towards the front. I’m happy to leave here with some points and we now have some work to do before Assen next weekend, where I hope we have some better results.  Sylvain Guintoli  - 9th     DNF This weekend we have been working hard to find the right settings for the Fireblade around this circuit, which hasn’t been easy. I think in race two I could have challenged for sixth position but I got a little hungry and lost the front, which resulted in me crashing out unfortunately. It’s not normally something that happens to me, but sometimes it does and you have to learn from it. The guys have collected a lot of data from this round and will be working towards finding solutions for Michael and myself to get the results we all want.  Pieter Breddels Aragon has been a bit of a challenge for us as we have tried to find the optimum setting for the CBR1000RR and we knew that both races would be difficult. In race one Sylvain got off to a good start immediately going into the top-ten and finished the race ninth. Michael recovered his start well and was building good momentum and producing lap times that could match the guys in front of him. Unfortunately after ten-laps he had a small technical issue with the bike, which forced him out of the race. In race two Sylvain had a crash after loosing the front, which ended his weekend. For Michael it was a lot better, he fought all throughout the race to get into sixth position but on the very last lap had to settle for eighth. Both riders rode well all weekend but there is a gap at the front, which we now have to go back and an alyse and think how we can close this, and get closer to the action.  Weather Sunny Intervals Air 12°C Track 18°C Humidity 75%   Race 1 Results   1   Jonathan Rea 33m.36.937s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 2   Chaz Davies +0.051s GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team 3   Tom Sykes +4.977s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 4   Leon Haslam +15.088s GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils 5   Jordi Torres +15.290s ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils 6   Xavi Fores +16.655s ESP DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team 7   Nicolas Terol +17.365s ESP DUCATI Althea Racing 8   Leandro Mercado +25.527s ARG DUCATI BARNI Racing Team 9   Sylvain Guintoli +31.464s FRA HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team 10   Leon Camier +43.013s GBR MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse Weather Sunny Air 18°C Track 32°C Humidity 48%   Race 2 Results   1   Chaz Davies 33m34.699s GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team 2   Jonathan Rea +3.190s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 3   Leon Haslam +3.712s GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils 4   Jordi Torres +14.216s ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils 5   Xavi Fores +20.524s ESP DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team 6   David Salom +25.878s ESP KAWASAKI Team Pedercini 7   Leandro Mercado +25.939s ARG DUCATI BARNI Racing Team 8   Michael van der Mark +26.075s NED HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team 9   Ayrton Badovini +27.253s ITA BMW JR Racing Team 10   Nicolas Terol +28.666s ESP DUCATI Althea Racing   Championship Standings   1   Jonathan Rea 140 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 2   Leon Haslam 114 pts GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils 3   Chaz Davies 83 pts GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team 4   Tom Sykes 66 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 5   Jordi Torres 63 pts ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils 6   Sylvain Guintoli 48 pts FRA HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team 7   Nicolas Terol 41 pts ESP DUCATI Althea Racing 8   Matteo Baiocco 39 pts ITA DUCATI Althea Racing 9   Leandro Mercado 38 pts ARG DUCATI BARNI Racing Team 10   Alex Lowes 34 pts GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki 11   Michael van der Mark 28 pts NED HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team   Copyright-free images for editorial use only © 2015 Pata Honda.

Team Pata Honda's van der Mark & Guintolli Struggle in World Superbike Qualifying at Motorland Aragon

Motorland Aragon - Spain    11.04.2015                 Fourth row start for Michael van der Mark at Aragon Michael van der Mark will start tomorrow’s third-round World Superbike championship races from the fourth row of the grid after qualifying in 11th position today at Aragon in Spain.   The Dutch rider had a positive start in the morning’s free practice runs and the team will take the data from all sessions to continue to work on obtaining the right setting for the 5.077km Aragon circuit.   Meanwhile Sylvain Guintoli will start the two 18-lap races a row behind his teammate in 14th position after missing out on Superpole this afternoon. It has been a difficult two days for Guintoli and his crew as they continue to seek the optimum setting for the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP.  Michael van der Mark  - P11, 1m51.510s I had a good feeling this morning, we improved a little bit and I thought we could go a lot faster in Superpole but it didn’t work out. I think the race pace is ok, but we have to come from quite far back on the grid and I am a little disappointed with that, but tomorrow is a new day.  Sylvain Guintoli  - P14, 1m51.481s We struggled a little bit today and couldn’t get qualifying pace, with the race tyre it felt good but I wasn’t able to improve my times. It will be hard work tomorrow for the races, we are trying everything and the crew is working hard to make improvements. We have to keep our heads down and try our best during the races.  Pieter Breddels It’s been a difficult day, Michael was 11th and Sylvain missed out on Superpole in 14th place. There is a gap with the competition at the moment, but we have got a lot of data to go through and put some changes in place ready for warm-up tomorrow.  Weather Sunny Air 18°C Track 32°C Humidity 44%   Qualifying Results   1   Leon Haslam 1m49.664s GBR APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils 2   Chaz Davies 1m49.697s GBR DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team 3   Tom Sykes 1m49.863s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 4   Jonathan Rea 1m50.053s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 5   Xavi Fores 1m50.449s ESP DUCATI Aruba.it Racing-Ducati Superbike Team 6   Ayrton Badovini 1m50.670s ITA BMW JR Racing Team 7   Jordi Torres 1m50.735s ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils 8   Alex Lowes 1m50.924s GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki 9   Nicolas Terol 1m51.146s ESP DUCATI Althea Racing 10   Leandro Mercado 1m51.243s ARG DUCATI BARNI Racing Team 11   Michael van der Mark 1m51.510s NED HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team 14   Sylvain Guintoli 1m51.481s FRA HONDA Pata Honda World Superbike Team   Copyright-free images for editorial use only © 2015 Pata Honda.