A VERY SUCCESSFUL 7th ROUND AT SNETTERTON BRITISH SUPERBIKES

The 7th round of the British Supersport Championships was held at the very fast Snetterton race track near Norwich in Norfolk. The circuit is an old airfield with two very long straights requiring bikes with good power delivery with top speeds of over 160 mph in our 600cc Supersport class. The practice day on Friday was warm and dry with the usual Snetterton gusting winds typical of this very flat and open track with few trees to provide wind breaks.
The day went smoothly allowing Jason and Pat to run in new engines and fine tune gearing and suspension settings with the two allocated 30 minute practice sessions.

Saturday our qualifying day conditions were similar to the previous day, but the first 30 minute qualifying session was stopped after only 10 minutes due to the track surface breaking up on the
racing line through the tight Russell's chicane. The organizers scratched their heads and decided to extend the painted white kerbing to stop the bikes running over this potentially dangerous spot. The effect of this was an hour and a half of the days schedule was lost. So we ended up having just one 30 minute qualifying session later in the day instead of are usual two.
The lap times from the initial 10 minutes on track were cancelled, a little frustrating as both Jason and Pat had put in their best lap times of the weekend and were well up the order. So the riders had to make it count with our one and only qualifying stint. Jason finished the session in a strong 12th place only 1.1 seconds off the fastest poll time set by the factory Came Yamaha rider James Westmoreland.

Pat achieved his lap time goal of breaking into the 1 minute 8 second bracket on his 16th out of 20 laps on track and finished in 21st position overall and 4th place in his cup championship. Race day on Sunday was again dry and still very windy, with our 20 lap race set to go at 3.50 in the afternoon.
Both Jason and Pat were feeling confident and looking forward to some good racing. Jason got a great start and was right up there with the leaders on the first lap in 9th position and then enjoyed some close battles and by lap 5 was up to 6th place in the race, the remaining 15 laps Jason fought hard with Billy McConnell on the other Came Factory supported Yamaha eventually getting the better of him on lap 17. Jason crossed the finishing line in a brilliant 6th position and first Yamaha home this excellent result leaves Jason currently in 10th place in the Championship.

Pat also had good drive off the start line but unfortunately was blocked into the first corner with a fair amount of fairing bashing going on, luckily all the 31 riders managed to stay on board. Pat came round on lap one in 24th position and realizing he had some work to do set about closing down and overtaking the riders in front of him, by lap 5 he was up to 17th place. Lady luck was with him as both Luke Mossey and Paul Jordan both retired with engine problems, this meant Pat was in a close battle with Max Hunt for the Cup class win. On the final lap of the race Pat attempted a pass on Hunt but ran wide and had to close the throttle but still managed to reach the finish in a great 2nd place with his 4th podium visit so far this year. Another 20 points in the bag now puts Pat's lead in the Cup Championship up to 9 points, still very close at the sharp
end. We now have a 3 week gap to the next round at Brands Hatch GP, both Jason and Pat consider this challenging track to be one of their favorites.
Roll on the weekend of the 8th of August. See you there.

SOME ACTION SHOTS FROM BSB SNETTERTON

BONNY WEE SCOTLAND, NOT QUITE SO BONNY !!

After the long drive to the Knockhill circuit just a few miles north of Edinburgh on Thursday we set up camp with the team's new Supersport rider Jason O'Halloran.
Things were looking good for an enjoyable weekend's racing including some decent weather. Practice day on Friday was dry and Jason got his first try out on the R6, unfortunately in the first of two 30 minute sessions Jason's bike developed a mechanical problem early on which only allowed him to complete 4 laps.
Jason's crew of Spider and team worked hard to replace the engine in time for the second session later on in the day.

Jason finished the practice day in 13th position only 0.7 of a second off the fastest time, a good start. Pat had two trouble free outings on his R6 and finished in 19th place overall and 3rd in his cup championship.
The following day Saturday was again warm and dry with two 30 minute qualifying slots. Jason was getting more familiar with his machine and finished in 14th position for a 4th row start on the grid for the race.
Pat got his head down and achieved a lap time of 51.198 in the first session, he was hoping for a quicker time in the next and final session which he managed on his last flying lap but only by one thousandths of a second with a time of 51.197, a little frustrated by this he was starting from 19th position on the grid one row behind Jason.

There were 33 riders this weekend competing in the British Supersport class. The weather forecast for race day on Sunday was not looking good and we awoke to rain and high winds. The race schedule was badly effected with flooding to the track, eventually we got a 8 minute warm
up session to try out our Pirelli wet weather tyres and try to find a suspension set up that would work on a wet track.
Pat and Jason were both comfortable and finished the short practice in 11th and 12th positions. As the weather continually changed a lot of track time was lost and many of the other class's races were cancelled including the Harley Davidson's, 125's, Stock 600 second race and also the second British Superbike race. The organizers managed to slot us in for a shortened 15 lap race instead of the planned 25 lapper at about 4 o'clock.
The high winds had dried the track very quickly and our bikes were sat on tyre warmers with dry tyres ready to go and then the skies opened again and it was back to wet tyres and softer suspension settings, it's not easy this sport.

Jason had a good strong first race for the team and finished in a very encouraging 10th place, this leaves him in 11th position in the championship. Pat had not the best of starts with some clutch judder but found some places over the race distance and was pressurizing Dan Kneen and Paul Jordon just in front of him. Dan was an early victim of the appalling conditions and crashed heavily breaking his collarbone in the process. Then on lap 12 Paul Jordon went off in exactly
the same place after high siding on the painted very slippery kerbing. The race was then red flagged and stopped and a result was declared as over 2/3 of the race had been completed. Pat had finished in 17th place overall and a very pleasing 2nd place podium finish in his championship. This result now put's Pat in 1st place in the standings at the half way point of 6 out of 12 race weekend's completed. We now have a two week break before the battle
continues at the super fast Snetterton circuit on 18th July. Can't wait.

ACTION SHOTS OF JASON AND PAT AT BSB KNOCKHILL

AUSTRALIAN JASON O'HALLORAN SIGNS FOR EAST COAST RACING

Jason O'Halloran 22 years of age from Wollongong Australia has signed to
ride the East Coast racing Yamaha R6 starting this weekend at the BSB round
at Knockhill. Jason has a wealth of experience having ridden in many classes
including British Superbikes last year, he has also won the Australian
Supersport championship. Riding under number 22 Jason is currently lying in
11th position in the British Supersport Championship with a best result this
season of an excellent 4th place finish in the opening round at Brands Hatch
back in April having started the season riding for the Oxford Tag Triumph
outfit. We wish him a successful weekend in Scotland.