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Deroue: "I didn’t want to lead into the last lap"

Tuesday, 2 May 2017 08:21 GMT

Dutchman produces heroics in front of home fans

Heading into its second Round the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship produced yet another showstopper race, and fans at the Acerbis Dutch Round were treated to a home win as Scott Deroue (MTM HS Kawasaki) took the victory in a dramatic last lap.

Starting from second on the grid, the 21 year old got a steady start off the line and was down in ninth position on the opening laps but with the front group of 16 fighting for the victory, he wasn’t in a bad position to fight for the podium.

Branding some of the racing as dangerous in the 12 lap shootout, Deroue had a plan in place in order to fight for the victory, with the hope of not leading the way in the final laps. Despite this going against his favour, the Kawasaki rider sensationally took the victory by just 0.113s.

“The start was not so good,” said Deroue. “The first laps were very difficult because the group was so big. The riders were overtaking quite dangerously, so I was waiting a bit to see what everyone was doing, but I didn’t want to lose so much time in the first part. When a big gap appeared that I couldn’t close I had to focus, plan and just race. Going into the last corner on the second to last lap I was first and thinking I didn’t want this. I really pushed hard and just hoped nobody overtook me, I’m unbelievably happy to win at my home track with all the people who help me out, especially Kawasaki.”

Leading the championship by 24 points following the second race in the history of the series, Deroue explains he is not yet thinking of taking the title, but taking it race by race: “I am now looking forward to Imola. I will just try to do the best job in Italy and then Donington; we will just go race by race and see what happens at the end of the championship.”

Re-watch the Dutch riders home heroics around TT Circuit Assen, or take a look at his opening victory of the season all on our WorldSBK VideoPass, which can be found here.