Attack The World! – Friday, Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimao, Portugal

Copyright 2022, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

by Michael Gougis

At least the bikes got to the track on time.

Delays in getting the bikes through customs meant that the Attack Racing equipment made it to the track far later than the team wanted. Endless debates about what kind of plane the team’s Yamaha YZF-R1s had to fly on, nomenclature on the forms, a midnight run to get the tractor-semi trailer – at the end of it all, Attack’s Richard Stanboli was convinced that the customs officials were just making things up to delay the process.

But when practice opened on Friday, two-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Jake Gagne was on the track and mixing it up with the world’s best Superbike racers. At the end of FP1, Gagne was 18th, 2.114 seconds off of Michael Rinaldi’s quickest time, but sandwiched between former British Superbike Champion Leon Haslam – a racer who has won multiple Superbike World Championship races and the Suzuka 8-Hours three times – and Lucas Mahias, a racer who has won the Endurance World Championship and the Supersport World Championship.

The temperature rose for Free Practice Two, and while Gagne improved his time, he was still 2.040 seconds behind the quickest rider of the session, Yamaha factory rider and defending Superbike World Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu.

After a debrief, Stanboli summarized the challenge facing the team as a matter of dialing in the electronics – specifically the engine braking. When the engine braking isn’t right, the rider isn’t confident on the front – and when they’re not confident on the front, it’s difficult to get the engine braking right. “It’s a chicken-and-egg thing,” Stanboli said.

Fellow American and Yamaha rider Garrett Gerloff flew in the cooler conditions of the morning, his 1:41.082 quick enough to remain third after the times from both practice sessions were combined.

Gerloff was asked about how he was enjoying having Gagne in the paddock this weekend, and said that he and Gagne were having fun, lunching together, and talking about the circuit.

Gerloff summed up the attitude of the professional racer who can be friendly but still knows what his job is.

“I want him to do well,” Gerloff said of Gagne. “I just don’t want him to beat me.”