Motourage

Relentless Suzuki’s Josh Brookes secured his place in the Top-Six Title Fighters Showdown at Cadwell Park yesterday with fourth place in the opening British Superbike Championship race and a second place in race three.

The Australian received rapturous applause for his performance in race two at Cadwell from fans who obviously believe Sunday’s controversial decision to exclude him from the results was harsh treatment after the incident with Michael Rutter.

Josh Brookes:
“I was a bit suspicious in the first race that we had a small tire problem and we wisely didn’t change anything on the bike for race two. The whole GSX-R Suzuki package worked so much better, and I was able to fight at the front and finish right on Tommy’s back wheel. Despite a few blips during the season, we always knew we were in with a chance of winning the title and we got the chance to prove that this weekend in the results. I’m really pleased how the weekend ended.”

Philip Neill, Team Manager:
“What a weekend. I’m certainly glad that one’s over but I’m also delighted how it ended for us. We made life difficult for ourselves at the start of the season and had to play catch up, but the combined package of Josh Brookes and our GSX-R Superbike is more than good enough for the job. He’s coming strong at the right time of the season and even though we would have liked a few more podium credits, the man who wins races in the final three rounds will undoubtedly be Champion. Donington, Silverstone and Brands are strong circuits for Josh and we firmly believe he will be in there challenging for victories.

“On behalf of the whole team, we would like to pass on our deepest sympathy to Ben Gautrey’s family circle after the young man tragically lost his life yesterday at Cadwell Park. We’d also like to mention local men Wayne Hamilton and good friend of TAS Racing, Adrian McFarland, who also sadly lost their lives in separate road racing crashes at the weekend.”

BSB race two result:
1 Tommy Hill (Yamaha)
2 Michael Laverty (Yamaha) +1.700s
3 Shane Byrne (Honda) +3.460s
4 Josh Brookes (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +6.067s
5 Peter Hickman (Honda) +18.892s
6 Jon Kirkham (Suzuki) +23.495s
7 Martin Jessopp (Ducati) +24.300s
8 Graeme Gowland [Honda] +24.424s
9 Ryuichi Kiyonari [Honda] +33.228s
10 Gary Mason (Kawasaki) +33.534s

BSB race three result:
1 Tommy Hill (Yamaha)
2 Josh Brookes (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.632s
3 Michael Laverty (Yamaha) +1.582s
4 Shane Byrne (Honda) +2.013s
5 Peter Hickman (Honda) +2.664s
6 Jon Kirkham (Suzuki) +3.622s
7 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) +8.039s
8 Martin Jessopp (Ducati) +17.537s
9 Graeme Gowland (Honda) +18.386s
10 James Ellison (Honda) +20.465s

British Superbike Championship standings:
1 Tommy Hill (Yamaha) 529
2 Shane Byrne (Honda) 522
3 John Hopkins (Suzuki] 518
4 Michael Laverty (Yamaha) 510
5 Josh Brookes (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 509
6 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 508

Samsung Crescent Racing has confirmed that John Hopkins will not ride at Cadwell Park this weekend, the ninth round of the 2011 British Superbike Championship.

The injury to the Suzuki rider’s right hand that he damaged at the Brno MotoGP in the Czech Republic is healing well, but doctors advise it is insufficiently healed to enable him to race again so soon. The team has also confirmed that there will be no replacement rider for Hopkins; Jon Kirkham will be their sole representative on track.

Jack Valentine, Team Manager:
“Unfortunately Hopper’s hand is not healed enough to race this weekend and while this is disappointing to us and the fans it is the right decision when we consider the upcoming Showdown phase of the Championship.

“Hopper’s been in daily contact as he’s undergone intensive laser treatment and hyperbaric chamber sessions. He’s explained the external pins are expected to be removed on Wednesday, but of course the weekend is too soon after that for his hand to be sufficiently healed.

“We will, we suspect, lose a few podium points to our rivals in the Showdown, but to race a Superbike at a track such as this when you don’t have 100 percent strength in your throttle and brake hand is simply too dangerous both to the rider and his competitors and would only stand to slow Hopper’s recovery from the injury.

“The team will nonetheless be at very near full-strength as we look forward to giving Jon Kirkham additional resources for the weekend. He’ll have two crew chiefs working for him as well as his regular crew of mechanics and we hope this will fast track his set-up, allowing him to get back to where he belongs; at the front of the field.”

MSS Colchester Kawasaki got another preseason boost as rookie Superstock 1000 rider Danny Buchan broke the Cadwell Park class lap record while riding a national club race. The 17-year-old stunned the paddock as he broke the record first in practice and again in the Bemsee-MRO event in his first competitive ride on the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R.

Danny Buchan on the Superstock 600 machine in 2010

The young Team Green graduate had an impressive season in 2010 showing real pace in the national Superstock 600 series, and he has continued that progress during winter testing as he prepares to line up in the ultra-competitive 1000cc class.

Finishing with a 1.29.946 lap, Buchan laughed, “I’d be well happy with that when we come back here with British Superbikes. I’ve really enjoyed getting some miles on the big bike over the winter and testing has gone well. It’s nice to get a lap record at this stage of the year but I know come the main event everyone will be upping their game again.”

Buchan,  who is local to the MSS Colchester Kawasaki race team workshop in Essex, has been supported through his career by both Kawasaki UK’s Team Green race program and Nick Morgan’s MSS Colchester British Superbike race team.

Morgan added, “What a lap. When you consider he was four seconds faster per lap than the next rider who was on an open class machine and is no slouch at national level, it’s very impressive. We’re not getting carried away, but we know Danny will definitely be up there, and with Howie Mainwaring we have two cracking riders in the series plus the bike of the year”

Samsung Crescent Racing’s Jon Kirkham has signed off on two days of intensive BSB testing at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire by setting a personal-best lap time.  After a heavy crash he came back strong with ever-quicker lap times and showing all the indications that he could very well mix it with the top British Superbike riders this season.

Jack Valentine – Team Manager:
“This was a last-minute opportunity to test at Cadwell Park and it came so late we weren’t able to fly John Hopkins back from America in time. However, his teammate Jon Kirkham, has been doing excellent work these past two days, developing electronics and chassis set-ups. His feedback will be invaluable to Hopper when he returns.

“Unfortunately Jon did suffer a heavy fall yesterday, at the bottom of The Mountain. He took a heavy blow to his elbow and was pretty sore after tumbling into the safety barriers. The incident was not his fault. He undoubtedly had an uncomfortable night, but he came back and made excellent progress despite being tired – he’d flown back from Alpinestars in Italy very late Tuesday night.

“Jon set good lap times on race-length worn tires in the mid-afternoon, so before we finished he went out one last time on fresh tires and knocked another whole second off his best time. He’s showing strength and resilience, but equally he’s been able to far exceed his previous Superstock times and been able make the psychological jump of stepping it up when the opportunity arises. I can see Jon having a very successful Rookie season in British Superbikes.”

Samsung Crescent Racing’s next test will be at Croft in early April.

With a win and a second place at Cadwell Park, Worx Crescent Suzuki’s Tommy Hill finished the first nine-round stage of the British Superbikes Championship tied with Ryuichi Kiyonari for the points lead. Hill’s team-mate Yukio Kagayama took two seventh places finishes to lift his standing in the Championship to 12th.

In an exciting day’s racing, Hill was on top form, and after dominating the first race, was challenging for the lead again in the second race when it was red flagged on the 14th lap. In the race one, Josh Brookes took the early lead but succumbed to an attack from Hill on the eighth lap. Hill then maintained a constant 1:27-minute lap pace while his rivals withered, and took the win by 5.116 seconds. In the race two, Hill led for 11 laps and was trailing Brookes by just 0.230-seconds after 13 laps when the race was stopped.

Hill’s point tally from the nine rounds amounts to 287 points, three more than Brookes and six more than Ryuichi Kiyonari. However, with the Showdown phase now beginning, the championship points tally taken so far is cast aside. The championship will now be decided over the final three rounds (seven races) between the six highest points scorers so far, known as the Title Fighters. All the title fighters have their championship point tally put on an initial parity of 500, to which is added only the podium points they’ve scored thus far (podium points have been awarded as three for a win, two for second and one for third). On this basis Hill steps forward into the Showdown as joint leader with Kiyonari on 525 points apiece.

Tommy Hill:
“What a fantastic weekend! To see Yuki coming good as well – it’s been all good. In that first race I just felt really-really good, I could have made the jump earlier but I was interested to sit behind Josh to see what he was doing. In the second race the pace was so fast, something like two-seconds faster than it was last year, and maybe it was that or maybe there was small issue with the rear tire but I had a little bit of chatter to deal with. I still felt comfortable and while Josh had passed me when I made a small mistake on the Mountain I felt comfortable and was setting up to repass him when the red flags came out.

“All in all I feel overjoyed. We get to leave here having effectively won the first part of the season and having beaten the HM Plant team in their own back yard – that’s kind of a bonus. But now its crunch time and to be going into this vital part of the season with a joint points lead is a great position to be in.”

Yukio Kagayama:
“Today was very good for me although for sure 7-7 doesn’t sound like a score I’d want to be happy with. But this was my first racing visit to Cadwell Park since 2004 as I missed the first round earlier this year, so I had no base settings to work from – and I set-up my bike quite different to Tommy. So no top-three for me, but I am happy that my lap times got better all weekend, and my second race today was much faster although the result was the same. And I enjoy riding the bike, my feeling for racing, for set-up, is getting better so I hope in the races to come I can challenge again for the podium.”

Jack Valentine – Team Manager:
“The team are buzzing. There’s been so much work gone into this weekend and everyone can see we’ve made a major breakthrough with our set-up and this has really boosted Tommy’s confidence. He could have had two wins today but we’ll never know. The important thing is we’re in the strongest possible position as we head into the Showdown. The GSX-R is the strongest it’s been all season and Tommy’s got all the confidence in the world.

“For Yuki, it’s been a good weekend for him as well. Having that big crash in practice couldn’t have helped him, but in the races he simply got quicker and quicker. He had to fight his way past Alastair Seeley in both races and he was mindful he needed to make a clean pass as it’s so tight here, but once past his lap time was on a par with those ahead, so he’s shown he’s getting his pace back. There’s every probability he’ll be able to fulfill the support role that’s needed as Tommy fights for the Championship.

“So it’s the best feeling for us. We’ve made the breakthrough we’ve been looking for and we even know that wet or dry we’ve a setup that works. We won’t be resting though; we’re going to be pushing for more – as we’re sure all the other teams will be doing.”

MCE Insurance 2010 British Superbike Championship
Round Nine, Cadwell Park:

Race one result:
1. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki)
2. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +5.116s
3. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +7.092s
4. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +12.522s
5. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +14.623s
6. James Ellison (Swan Honda) +20.822s
7. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +28.158s
8. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +28.533s
9. Dan Linfoot (Motorpoint Yamaha) +34.523s
10. Stuart Easton (Swan Honda) +34.945s

Race two results:
1. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda)
2. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.230s
3. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +0.888s
4. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +5.071s
5. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +11.719s
6. James Ellison (Swan Honda) +13.178s
7. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +15.712s
8. Tommy Bridewell (Quay Garage Honda) +21.347s
9. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +24.287s
10. Gary Mason (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +27.446s

MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship standings after Cadwell Park:

Showdown Title Fighters:
=1. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) 525
=1. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) 525
3. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) 524
4. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) 510
5. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 509
6. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 505
12. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) 74

MSS Colchester Kawasaki’s Gary Mason has been declared unfit for tomorrow’s Cadwell Park British Superbike meeting after a medical inspection showed he had received a concussion during a qualifying crash.

Gary had been running strongly all weekend and was actually in second position in the second stage of qualifying when he fell heavily at Charlie’s. The Lichfield rider was particularly disappointed after such positive practice session times.

The team’s other rider, Chris Walker, qualified in a strong eighth position for tomorrow’s two BSB races as the sun beat down at the Lincolnshire circuit.

Howie Mainwaring could only manage 14th in the Superstock class, but the team is confident that he has a strong race set-up.

Swan Honda’s Stuart Easton will leave the hospital later today following his crash yesterday during testing at Cadwell Park.

Easton had an operation on his leg late last night and, according to his crew, chief Pete Jennings, no internal damage was discovered to the muscles or tendons. The wound was stitched, and he will be discharged to from hospital today.

The second Swan Honda of James Ellison will return to the track later today for the team’s final test.