The 2012 Superbike TT is history. Rico Penzkofer and Matsushita Yoshinari fought themselves around the Mountain Circuit at the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. At the end Penzkofer reached a 34th spot whilst Yoshinari classified himself as 36th. Results where influenced by a wrong flag signal at the end of lap five.
Penzkofer made his way to the Top20 of 70 starters as he was aiming to go ahead to his sixth and last lap of this Superbike TT. By this time the much earlier started John McGuinness had lapped Penzkofer on track already and even if the German rider had to go one more time round the Mountain Cours, he was shown the chequered flag. As published in riders briefing he went to the pit lane after that.
Race direction later took the decision to record him in the official result. This was possible by taking the average speed of Penzkofer’s first five laps and adding this to his race time. Of course with that his Top 20 placement wasn’t possible any more but he gained a 34th spot in the Superbike TT.
Team mate Matsushita Yoshinari from Japan took his BMW S 1000 RR round the Mountain Course the full six times and was happy with a well earned 36th spot.
Rico Penzkofer
“Of course it’s a pity that I’ve been shown the chequered flag one lap too early and therefore I wasn’t able to make up more ground on my rivals. But race direction realized they made a mistake and made this public. Now I am at least in the result. My BMW S 1000 RR Superbike got a bit better but I still had to fight hard and stood on the footpegs most of the time. All in all I am satisfied so far. We now look forward on Monday’s Superstock TT and Friday’s Senior TT where we are going to attack again.”
Matsushita Yoshinari
“It where hard but nice six laps here on the Isle of Man. My BMW S 1000 RR was running good, even though we want to change some things for Friday’s Senior TT. Out of 70 riders I saw the finish line in 36th position, that’s great. It’s a shame Rico got flagged too early.”
