British Superbike

Mixed results for JG Speedfit Kawasaki at Thruxton

4 Mins read
Photo: JG Speedfit Kawasaki

Bournemouth based JG Speedfit Kawasaki suffered mix results at this weekend’s British Superbike Championship round at Thruxton.

The race meeting was over before it began for Luke Mossey, as he was ruled out due to injuries sustained in a crash in Saturday’s FP3 session. Just before his crash on the start/finish straight, he’d managed to set the fastest lap. He was taken to hospital and ruled out due to a broken vertebrae and bruised ankle. Despite his misfortune he still remains in Showdown contention, but it is not known whether the Cambridgeshire rider will compete at the next round at Cadwell Park in two weeks time. Speaking of his injury, Mossey commented:

“Well this is certainly not how I planned to spend my weekend at Thruxton – laid in a hospital bed with a broken vertebra!

“The boys had worked really hard after Snetterton and Brands and the bike felt fantastic on Friday. Thruxton has always been one of my favourite circuits and I’ve been really fortunate in the past to have some really good results here. I was going well in FP3 and was comfortably sitting in second. I was on another strong lap but as I came out of the final complex my rear wheel went on the grass and the rest is history. It threw me so high and so far that I didn’t know when I was going to land!

“I knew something wasn’t right instantly but the track medics and staff were with me in seconds. I can’t thank them enough for their prompt assistance. I am just so sorry for all of the JG Speedfit team who work so hard and I am disappointed to let them down especially when things were heading in the right direction again.” He then added,

“Thank you to every single person who has messaged, tweeted or got in contact with me to wish me well. I’m very grateful for all the support I have been shown, it means a lot and I hope to see you all again soon!

Leon Haslam had to fly the JG Speedfit Kawasaki flag by himself this weekend, but it wasn’t plain sailing. Haslam set the third fastest time in Q2 and shot straight into the Superpole session. His out lap was completed without fault, however on his fast lap he crashed on the exit to the chicane, immediately pushing him to ninth on the grid for the first race.

The twenty lap race one was reduced to eighteen due to time constraints, but it became a ten lap sprint after the safety car was deployed on lap two for six laps. Haslam piled the pressure onto Christian Iddon and Jason O’Halloran, but didn’t have enough grip left to challenge them entirely, so settled for nine points.

Haslam started the second race from the second row and this time had a much more successful outing, taking third off Iddon going into the final chicane and gaining a vital podium credit.

Overall, Haslam left Thruxton happy with the overall result, and is looking forward to Cadwell Park and other tracks where he knows he performs well.

“I’m really happy with the overall end result here at Thruxton.  We knew it was going to be a tough weekend as it was one of my worst weekends last year on the Kawasaki. Race one was reduced to only ten laps and the hard compound tyre just wouldn’t work for us on that distance versus the other riders on the softer tyre.

“Similarly race two got reduced to 18 laps but we managed to fight through for a podium place. I managed to gain podium credits and points at my worst circuit of the calendar and I must say a huge thanks to all my team at JG Speedfit for working so hard all weekend.

“I am now looking forward to the remaining rounds which are at circuits where we’ve previously performed well. We had a good test at Cadwell and I have a week to rest after what has been a tough few months!”

It was a successful weekend in the Hyundai Heavy Industries British Sidecar Championship. Three races were scheduled over the weekend, but Sunday’s sidecar action was cancelled after two separate accidents.

Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood were unable to challenge as hard as they’d like to have done against Tim and Tristan Reeves, and settled for sixth in a wet race one. In race two, they fought hard to bring home a second place for the team. It was up and down for ‘Team Ricky and Ryan’, and they’d learned a lot from this weekend. Stevens said:

Qualifying was a bit of a disaster because of our choice of tyres but race one was actually quite good for us in terms of confidence building. We started in p15 and ended up in sixth place in the wet so we were both quite pleased with that.

“Thankfully race two was dry but we had a bit of a bad start because of the bike. Once we got going, however, we manged to move into second place on lap three which is where we finished.We were equalling the lap leader’s times in race two so we were really pumped for the third race and we were going for a win but unfortunately it was cancelled following two crashes early on.

“We’re now looking forward to Cadwell in two weeks’ time and making sure the bike is ready for what is set to be another full-on weekend of racing,” he added.

All-female sidecar duo Maria Costello and Kirsty Hauxwell had their best weekend yet, taking two podiums on their 600cc outfit. Costello was understandably delighted on their result, and speaking after the event said:

“We really enjoyed racing at Thruxton as it’s a really fast circuit and to get not one, but two podium finishes this weekend was an amazing feeling.

“Qualifying was tough as it had rained hard just before we went out so the track was really wet and we made some mistakes with tyre choices but coming third in our class in both races on Saturday gave us a massive confidence boost. We’re pleased all of our hard work is starting to pay off and we’d like to say a massive thank you to our team, our amazing sponsors and of course our fans for all their support”

 

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