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British rider Kyle Smith is already a race winner in 2016, having taken the victory in difficult wet conditions in Assen in the Netherlands. It was the first win of the season for both rider and team, and the first win for the PTR team since the end of 2012, when Jules Cluzel took the last two races of the season. The well-known wet weather prowess of Smith certainly helped the Brit to his Dutch victory, but the CIA Landlord Insurance Honda rider has also shown fantastic pace in the dry and Buckmaster has confidence in his rider in the dry as much as the rain.

“Kyle has been fastest in three races this year,” explains Buckmaster in his Simon Says column. “Two of them have been dry races, before anyone says we only won because it was wet. Kyle is the only rider to have more than one fastest lap this year, proving his speed.”

With that to prove Smith’s pace, what is the focus for the Brit and his CIA Landlord Insurance Honda as the season passes the halfway point?

“We need to solve the fact that in the dry Kyle is weak on the opening laps,” says Buckmaster. “In Thailand he dropped to 12th on the first lap and fought back to 5^th; at Donington he dropped even further to 14th on the first lap. After 4 laps he got going. He was consistently the fastest rider on the track for the second half of the race but left himself too much to do and despite a terrific charge could only get to 6th. We are all working on this with Kyle as a rider to change his style so he can be fast on new tyres with a full fuel load.”

The team boss is sure his race winner is facing a solvable problem, however, and looks forward to the next half of the season with optimism. With Smith only a handful of points away from the top three in the title, Buckmaster doesn’t count him out of the fight.

The next WorldSSP Round takes place at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli from the 17^th to 19^th June as Smith gets back on track to tackle the work ahead, and to aim for another victory in the 2016 season.