Jon Kirkham - Photo Credit: Honda Racing
Jon Kirkham was satisfied with his Thruxton weekend despite losing the championship lead he held going into the meeting. The Samsung Honda rider took a pair of seventh places and is one of just five riders to have scored in every single race so far but that wasn't enough to prevent Ian Lowry from overtaking him in the standings.
Kirkham didn't enjoy a trouble-free run in either race on Sunday and given those difficulties, was pleased to leave Hampshire with some solid points.
“I was blocked on the opening lap of the first race and dropped back to about 16th and had to fight-back so all things considered I am really happy with that result. I made a bad tyre choice in the second. In the first race I had 14 good laps but in the second I only had six good laps so I should have stuck with what I had. At least I have some points in the bag from this meeting.”
Teammate Michael Laverty's slow start to the season continued with his first points coming in race one after coming from 13th on the grid to sixth. The Ulsterman couldn't build on that result with race two only yielding 13th after a poor tyre choice.
“It has been a tough weekend really and in the first race my grid position gave me a lot of work to do”, he said. “In race two I said to the team to go to a harder tyre but it was a mistake as our bike works well around here with the softer tyre. When they put the harder tyre in we had to make too many changes to the bike and we did have any grip.”
Team Manager Havier Beltran admitted he was hoping for better but hopes the points gained will prove crucial later in the season.
“It wasn't the best day in the office for us and we had a few tyre situations that didn't work how we had hoped, but at the same time two results are better than two DNFs. We now have a good amount of data to look through and we can then benefit from that.”
