Fairytale weekend for impromptu replacement Javier Del Amor with points finish in first ever CRT ride

Nobody could have imagined it, not even the rider himself, that a Spanish Championship regular who just came to the Catalunya Grand Prix with his street bike on Friday to watch the race would line up on the grid himself on Sunday and go home a world championship point to his name.

But this is exactly what happened to Javier Del Amor this weekend when he crossed the finish line of the Catalunya Grand Prix in 15th position. Javier, who unexpectedly replaced injured Hiroshi Aoyama on Saturday and never before has ridden a bike like this, not only managed to reach the main goal to finish the race, he did that in the points positions. Without a doubt the team and Del Amor will remember this day very fondly for the unusal circumstances that made his achievement possible.

Less fortunate was the end of the weekend for Hector Barbera who crashed out with nine laps to go. After doing a great comeback, getting close to the top CRTs and among the top ten, Barbera couldn’t avoid the crash when he lost grip on the front tyre going into a corner. Hector maintained a strong pace which lifted him up to fight with the top CRT riders, but he had to push hard to get there. Without any physical damage done, the crash left the Spaniard without any points.

8 Héctor Barberá (DNF) “I didn’t start well, because when I got into second I started to be passed very aggressively. It was strange, like the bike didn’t have any power at that moment. That left me far behind at the end of the first lap and then I started to recover, but it is difficult. I think the engine today was a standard one, it was very hot and the factory bikes are very fast. Despite that I closed in on the first CRTs and fought with a good pace, but when you push hard on the brakes to make up ground in the end it can happen what happened today. I tried to give my best and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.”

77 Javier Del Amor (15º, +1 lap): “I think I’m living a dream, but until a few hours have past or maybe until tomorrow I’m not fully aware of everything that has happened. Before anything else I want to thank the team for the opportunity they have given me to experience a day like today. It’s amazing to ride a MotoGP bike and to do it with this team which I hold very dear in my heart. Making my debut with Avintia Blusens and even taking a point is really incredible. Today it was very hot, the asphalt was very slippery and of course that’s why we’ve had so many crashes. I had to be careful and ride sensibly, because what I wanted was to finish. I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I assure you that I will never forget today.”

Source: Avintia Racing