This weekend, at the Misano World Circuit, Round No. 4 of the Italian Speed Championship took place, which hosted the Racing Night on Saturday.
Among the protagonists of the Superbike category, Kevin Manfredi from La Spezia is back in the fight for the podium, once again demonstrating great tenacity and speed even with a much older Suzuki than his competitors.
An important weekend for Kevin and the Penta Motorsport Team, who are constantly growing and constantly in the top part of the standings, after La Spezzino, at the beginning of the season, brought the Japanese Penta Motorsport bike back on the podium at Misano with a incredible race in the wet, disproving the myth of a now "finished" Suzuki.
Already from the first qualifying sessions on Friday Manfredi had shown great speed, finishing in fifth position and setting the best time for this bike so far, beating his previous record.
In the Saturday night race, only bad luck stopped Kevin who, after getting off to a good start, was fighting for third position, but had to abandon it due to a withdrawal due to a technical problem.
In Sunday's race 2, Kevin again got a good start and moved up to fifth position, keeping nine-times Italian Champion Michele Pirro, as well as MotoGP test rider, behind him for most of the race.
In the finale, however, Spezzino had to give in to the performance of Ducati, Aprilia, Honda and Yamaha, finishing sixth, but demonstrating that his work together with that of Team Penta Motorsport is bringing incredible improvements to the GSXR1000.
Kevin said: "I hadn't ridden this bike since April, we missed both Rounds 2 and 3 due to the coincidences with the MotoE World Championship and we didn't run tests like many of our rivals did.
The goal was to be competitive, but I didn't think so much. Many think that a 5th place in qualifying and 6th in the race are not good results, and it is true, because we can do more, but we have to be realistic.
We are the only team in Europe to run speed races with this bike and without having official support from the house. I am satisfied with what we are doing and I believe that the work will pay off soon.
We are aiming for the podium, an objective that only a year ago, at the beginning of the project, I didn't think I could achieve at all.
I had a lot of fun this weekend, a pity about the night race, a condition that I particularly liked, but that's okay, racing is also about that. The important thing is to have solved the problem and to have brought home a good result in view of Imola, a circuit that I really like."
However, Kevin Manfredi recovered many points and returned to the center of the group even with 5 races left, with the aim of further improving in the last round of the season at Imola.
In the meantime, he will be busy in the MotoE World Championship where he will face the second part of the season, with good motivation that also comes from this weekend that has just ended.
Kevin thanks all the sponsors and technical partners of the 2023 season.
