FIXI Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier completed his heroic comeback at Jerez at the weekend, taking eighth and sixth placed finishes in the final World Superbike races of the 2013 season.
Camier, who broke seven bones in his foot in Turkey, was making his return to racing action after a four week layoff.
The former British Superbike champion qualified in seventh place after making it through to Superpole three, and followed it up with eighth in race one, before battling impressively to sixth in race two.
He said afterwards, “I am really, really happy to be honest, because I didn’t expect a good result like that.
“It’s one of those things you debate with yourself as to whether you can ride or not, but as soon as you get on the bike and you get a bit of confidence back, it helps you to feel comfortable. Then you think that you need to go faster and push harder and you get right back in to the job, but you also have to try and keep a level head in those situations.
“It was encouraging to be racing with a factory BMW and also to beat Giugliano, who has just been putting it on the podium and racing with the leaders recently.
“I think we all did a good job considering everything and I can’t thank my team enough for their patience and help. I felt exhausted at the end and my foot was sore, but it was a good day all-in-all.”
Jules Cluzel had a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday, and started both of the weekend’s races from down in 18th place on the grid.
However, the battling Frenchman still put his head down in both races, working his way through the field and catching riders in front to an impressive top 10 finish in race two, taking eighth place. He was 11th in race one.
He said, “We made some changes from race-one to race-two and there were some good points about that and I enjoyed it a little bit more. I had to fight more with other riders and this was fun. The lap-time was not the best because I had to pass everybody at the beginning.
“I am happy with the race, because the weekend was not easy after Magny-Cours, which was a disaster for me, and we had a difficult start to the weekend and only qualified in 18th here.
“We made some big changes, but they were too late so they didn’t help our grid position, but that’s racing. This is the last race and now the season has finished, I have the feeling that I didn’t do my best in some races and that is probably because I was a rookie and I need more time to learn.”
Team Manager Paul Denning summed up the weekend, saying, “Not FIXI Crescent Suzuki’s most exciting race-day of the season, but all things considered it was a great effort by both riders and everyone in the team.
“Eighth and sixth places for Leon, considering that specialist advice would have seen him at home with his broken foot in the air still recovering, was an amazing result in context and I, on behalf of everyone in the team and all our partners, thank him for his dedication and efforts to be back here and so competitive.
“From 18th on the grid the opportunities were always going to be limited for Jules, but particularly in the second race he did really well to recover to eighth and he rode two consistent and strong races and impressed us with his determination and aggression in making so many passes.
“The 2013 season has flown by and whilst we seemed to have attracted our unfair share of bad luck, there have been many positives.
“Thanks to everybody involved in the team. We know there is work to do to improve the level of the bike to fight consistently with the front group, but those steps are being taken and we are looking to make the best of those lessons learned as we move into 2014.”
