Familiar isn’t a word we’ve been able to use much this season….. But for Kyle and Team Schmidt Racing a trip to Jerez is about as close as we are going to get
Kyle hoping to score heavily in Spain
For Kyle it has been a season of consternation, change at every step and uncertainty in every race, but now…. It looks like things have started to settle down. With a new, faster, more reliable bike, a more settled, if not smaller team and a chance to tear into a circuit that the Jacksdale ace is familiar with, we hope to see the sun shine on Kyle and Schmidt Racing this weekend.
Kyle has travelled the globe this season, from Australia to Assen, he’s been on a tour that Michael Palin would be proud of… But out of the whole WSBK calendar, there were only ever three venues that Kyle had raced or tested at previously. First up was the aforementioned Assen, Second up was the ill fated debut on the MV at Kyles home circuit, Donington Park and secondly, Jerez, the scene of this weekends racing.
Nestled in the heart of the Andalusian countryside, Jerez is a circuit that Kyle enjoys racing on too, he’s been here in the past testing with his former team, raced here in the CEV series and has completed many laps of this ever popular Spanish circuit. This weekend is surely one you would expect Kyle to do well at and at least put in a performance to better the 11th place he claimed last time out at Magny Cours.
To see what Kyle will be faced with this weekend, take a look at this on-board footage of Kyle testing at Jerez in 2015
Curcuito de Jerez
Built in 1986 and hosting its first Grand Prix one year later, the circuit of Jerez is now one of the most popular Motorsport venues in Spain and the focal point for a city fanatical about sport. Set in a slight valley in the south of Spain, Jerez is blessed with consistently good weather and beautiful scenery, its numerous grandstands providing the perfect viewing facilities for up to 250,000 spectators.
With two alternative road circuits (4,423m and 4,428m), which were resurfaced during 2005, Jerez is a popular venue used by many race teams for testing throughout the year, whilst its recently updated corporate and media facilities have proven to be a popular addition to the complex. Other facilities such as the control tower and pit boxes have also been vastly improved.
Best places to watch
Jerez is a great spectator circuit but there are a couple of places where your view of the action will be obscured, with that in mind, the best places to watch are between turns 11 and 12, you can see down 2 short straights and 2 bends and can also see the final corner
We also like Expo 2 here you can see down the length of the start/finish straight and get a good view of the first corner.
Getting to Jerez
Jerez Circuit is located approx. 18 km from the Jerez Airport and approx. 10 km from the Jerez City Centre.
CIRCUITO DE JEREZ
Carretera De Arcos, km 6.5
Apdo. De Correos 1709
11407 Jerez De La Frontera (Spain)
www.circuitodejerez.com
From Jerez Airport to the Jerez Circuit:
Take the National Road N-IV in the direction of Jerez. After 2 km take the road signposted “Sevilla”. Drive along and follow signposts that indicate “Circuito”, which will lead you onto the Andalusian Road A-382.
Leave the Andalusian Road A-382 at Exit no. 3 and follow signs to “Circuito”.
GPS Circuit Entrance:
Access 2: 36°42’43.59″N, 6° 2’8.45″W
Jerez Weather
As you would expect from Southern Spain the weather is going to be very decent this coming weekend, it might not be wall to wall sunshine but compared to the temperatures we have in the UK just now, it’ll feel beautiful.
There’s a very slim chance of rain on Friday but other than that it’s going to be dry and bright with broken cloud and temperatures in the low to mid twenties Celsius.
Winds will be light and conditions perfect for racing, your probably going to need the factor 20 🙂
Don’t miss any of the action
Kyle first takes to the track on Friday morning at 10:30 am for the first of the days free practice sessions. The second of these hour long practice sessions comes just after Lunch at 13:45, Unfortunately there’s no TV live coverage of Fridays action but you can keep up with progress by downloading the free WSBK app for live timing and an interactive circuit map.
Saturday morning gets underway for Kyle at 08:15 am UK time with FP3 session and just a couple of hours later we see the Superpole 1 and Superpole 2 races at 10:30 and 10:55 respectively. Hopefully Kyle can force his way into Superpole 2 in practice to give himself a better starting position for Sundays race.
Sunday sees a quick 15 minute warm up at 8am UK time before the feature race of the Supersport weekend gets underway at 10:20am. Fingers crossed we’ll see some more Championship points by the time this weekend is over.
TV Schedule
You can catch all of the action this weekend on Eurosport with live programmes starting at 09:15am on Saturday on Eurosport 2 and on Sunday live coverage will be broadcast on Eurosport 2 starting at 10am. Kyles race will be live from 10:20 am on Sunday.
There are numerous highlights programmes on offer across Saturday, Sunday and the following week so you’ll have ample time to catch at least some of the televised action this weekend. You can see a full run down of the coming weeks programmes here
Sponsorship
We try to take a pragmatic approach to rider funding so, we are always looking for new and innovative ways of keeping Kyle on track. To this end we have started trialling paid referrals for our site visitors and fans. Here’s how it works.
If one of you guys clicks the Quote Zone link at the top of the website or the one shown below and go on to buy your car, home bike or other insurance with Quote Zone, Kyle receives a small commission on the sale.
Quote Zone are an insurance comparison site like Go Compare etc and you can help Kyle by doing nothing more than updating your insurance! Quote Zone provide very competitive quotes for a range of insurance and will hopefully be able to save you some money in the process.