The MSS Colchester Kawasaki team endured a frustrating weekend at Snetterton with neither rider making it into the top ten despite some promising pace.
Gary Mason narrowly missed out on Q3 with Alex Lowes sneaking in to the final session in qualifying. The 20 year old didn't get any further up the grid though and the two ZX-10Rs lined up together on the third row for race one.
Despite a safety period mid-way through the race, both riders struggled with worn tyres leaving Mason in 11th while Lowes suffered to a greater extent and slipped outside the points altogether.
Race two didn't yield any points either for the Lincoln youngster after a mechanical problem. Unfortunately, fluid that had leaked from the bike caused Simon Andrews and Steve Brogan to crash at Riches with the former suffering a broken leg.
Mason battled hard in the shortened race but 11th was the best he could manage again, and the Lichfield rider is hoping to put the weekend behind him and reignite his hopes of making the championship showdown.
“It's been a frustrating weekend, the team is a lot stronger than this and so am I, but for some reason it just hasn't clicked at the Snetterton 300. It's been one of 'those meetings', which is frustrating. I'm improving, the bike is improving, but we had some niggles that held us back. Luckily the next round is Oulton, which is a track I love. We got good points, but I want more than that and hope to come back much stronger at the next round and secure a place in the Showdown.”
Meanwhile, Lowes' thoughts were with the injured Andrews and Brogan, and explained that there was little else he could do to prevent the accident.
“First of all I'd like to wish a speedy recovery to Simon Andrews and Steve Brogan after they hit the fluid dropped by my bike. I got off the racing line as soon as I could and I feel terrible that they couldn't avoid having an accident on it. There are a lot of positives we can take from Snetterton. We had the pace and I thought I was in with a shout of a decent finish in the first race but the tyre went off, dropping me back from eighth. Setting seventh fastest time overall in the first and fifth in the second race before the incident showed we had the speed, we just needed the consistency to do it for the whole race distance.”
Team owner Nick Morgan accepted that their package just didn't work around the revamped 300 circuit, and has promised a stronger showing next time out at Oulton Park.
“It has been pretty frustrating, especially with Gary so close to making it into the six rider Showdown. The team has been making amazing progress with the Ninja ZX-10R but for some reason it just didn't come together at Snetterton and the results don't reflect the hard work that everyone in the team has put in. We now need to focus on Oulton, a traditional strong track for us, and forget this weekend.”
