Riding for the Celani Suzuki team at the final round of the World Superbike Championship last weekend, Steve Martin took the chequered flag in 16th position in race one after an on track incident lost him his strong 9 position,th but came away from race two with a broken metatarsal in his right foot following a high side crash.

Having made improvements to the GSXR1000's set-up and lap times over the weekend, Steve qualified in 15th place to make Superpole, where he was able to improve on his position to take the 13th spot on the grid.

Commenting on race one Steve said, "I had a good start off the line but saw Lanzi flying in the air at the first corner so had to cut across to the inside in order to avoid being caught up in that. I'd been strong through the first sector all weekend and just held the bike flat out to make my way up to 9th by the end of the first lap.

"I was then setting myself up to overtake Rolfo even though the space was tight, but I ran a bit wide and on to the oil that had been laid on the track earlier in the day. That allowed Smrz to slip past me but he then unfortunately lost the front and went down in front of me.

"I had two split second choices - either run over him or run off the track, so that incident lost me a lot of time and landed me back in 17th until I was able to overtake Morelli."

With Lanzi out of race two with minor injuries, Steve was elevated to 12th on the grid although his second race was short lived when Steve high-sided on lap 5, resulting in a trip to the medical centre and an X-ray which revealed a broken metatarsal in his right foot.

Steve explained, "It's disappointing to end the season with a crash but it appears that it was just one of those things I was in the middle of the corner with only 2% throttle when the back came around on me. With further development of the bike's electrical system that could be stopped from happening again but we made good progress with the limited time we had."

Steve continued, "Overall it's been a good weekend as far as development of the bike is concerned. It's come a long way over the last three meetings and for what the bike package is, the team and I feel we got the maximum out of it and to be able to run in 9th position is evidence of that.

"I've enjoyed the three meetings with the team, they have proved to be a very professional and competent outfit, we've worked well together and also had a lot of fun."

Steve, Sandra and Axel have now returned to their European home in Switzerland where Steve will be seeing doctors this week to ensure his foot heals as quickly as possibly so that he can race in the last round of the World Endurance Championship at Qatar in a few weeks.

The Martin family will hopefully return to their Australian home in time for Axel's first birthday on 25 October, and also then evaluate the variety of options, both on and off track, that Steve has for next year.

visit www.stevemartin99.com for more info.

from Steve Martin Racing