Daniel Mogeda puts Team 109 back in the WorldSSP300 mix on Portimao return

Daniel Mogeda may have missed the last round of the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship following his Misano crash, but you would have been forgiven for thinking that the Spanish star hadn’t been away.

Close to the top ten on sheer pace in Superpole, the #88 produced an incredible race on Saturday.

Overcoming a back of the grid penalty plus two long lap penalties which would have ended any chance of a decent result for the majority of the grid Daniel dug deep to stage one of the best comebacks ever seen in WorldSSP300 history. He finished thirteenth at the flag.

Sunday was even more impressive with Mogeda heading the second group after producing another fightback from sixteenth to sixth by the time the chequered flag was waved.

With the championship leader failing to finish both races, Daniel keeps himself and the team in contention for a top three overall placing at the end of the season with a race in France, two in Spain, plus a race in Portugal still to come this year. He currently sits sixth.

Daniel Mogeda:

“This weekend in Portimão was my comeback race after my injury. It was a little difficult as it was not easy to be immediately fast due to what happened to me and also, I needed to build up my confidence again. After a slow start we improved because my team is incredible, and we work together so well. I qualified in P11, but I received a penalty and had two long lap penalties. Despite the penalties I was able to score three points in race one, which I was happy about and it showed we still had the potential to fight. On Sunday I finished sixth but was unable to stay with the lead group after starting P16. It was a good job by me and the team when you think that I didn’t race in the last races, and we had a few setbacks. Our next race is in France, and we will be stronger there!”

Paul Tobin – Team Principal:

“The weekend started well considering Daniel had not sat on the bike for six weeks. He qualified eleventh but he picked up some race one penalties for riding slowly in some sectors which I am sure he will learn from. He was put to the back of the grid and was given two long lap penalties which on paper was always going to make it a tough race. With five laps to go he wasn’t even close to the top twenty-five, but he fought his way back through the pack to P13 which was good. Race two was better. He started sixteenth and fought his way passed ten riders in the opening couple of laps into P6 but by that time the leading five were a couple of seconds up the road. He couldn’t bridge the gap but was able to lead the second group over the line, which was good for us and for him. The next race is at one of Daniel’s favourite tracks and we are confident that now he is free of injury and riding well that we can be back at the front there.”