PITT JOINS YAMAHA AT ASSEN
25 August 2004 - Yamaha Racing

Yamaha Motor Italia will enter three riders at round nine of the Supersport World Championship at the Assen circuit in The Netherlands (3-5 September) with former world champion Andrew Pitt joining the team in a one-round deal.

The Australian was initially approached to ride the team’s YZF-R6 as a replacement for the injured Fabien Foret. However the Frenchman is expected to have recovered sufficiently from the broken ankle he sustained last time out at Brands Hatch, so 2001 supersport world champion Pitt will line-up alongside regulars alongside Foret and Jurgen van den Goorbergh on the machine normally campaigned at selected rounds by Japanese rider Tekkyu Kayo.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to get back on a competitive bike with a good team,” declared Pitt, who rode full-time in MotoGP last season. “I’ve had a few outings in MotoGP this year (as a wild-card for the Moriwaki team) and feel that I am riding well, even if the package hasn’t allowed me to race at the front. I hope that I can adapt quickly to the 600 as I want to do well at Assen.”

“We’re looking forward to working with Andrew,” said team coordinator Massimo Meregalli. “He’s an experienced rider in this class and we know that he will have no problems with the close nature of the racing. He visited our workshops last week and we are planning a test prior to Assen for Andrew to get to know our bike and tyres and to minimize the adjustment time in Assen. When we originally spoke with Andrew it looked like Fabien would miss Assen. But he’s made good progress and the ankle is much better now. Fabien really wants to try to race this weekend and after having a long talk with him I am confident that he is fit enough to at least compete in Friday’s practice session; from there we can have a better idea of his condition.”

www.yamaha-racing.com

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