BSB Metzeler National Superstock 1000/600 Championships
Round 3
Croft
13 - 15 May 2011
Cummins frustrated despite strong showing
Cox again rues bad luck
Injury rules Anderson out for two meetings
The BSB Metzeler National Superstock Championships resumed with Round
3 at Croft at the weekend, and Blackhorse Kawasaki came away from the
North Yorkshire venue once again rueing their early season run of bad
luck.
Twenty-fifth in tricky conditions in Superstock 600 Free
Practice, Brad Anderson was looking good in the early stages of the
First Qualifying session when he unfortunately crashed on the third lap,
sustaining torn thumb ligaments which will sideline him for the next
two meetings.
For Victor Cox it was the race meeting where he
got his 2011 campaign underway with a 14th place points score but it all
could have been so much different for the Trowbridge rider. A steady
18th in difficult conditions in Free Practice was followed by 12th in
First Qualifying where Victor was on his first real flying lap when the
session was red-flagged. Drier conditions in the following session saw
him finish well up in seventh for a second row start in the race, just
under a second off pole and the second highest placed Kawasaki rider.
Victor
got a good start in the race, keeping out of trouble as the field
headed into the first corner and at the end of the lap he was right up
with the front runners and challenging in fifth, with a half second
buffer to the chasing group led by Richard Cooper. However on the second
lap Victor dropped back to seventh and at half race distance, as he
crossed the line in 10th, it was obvious that all was possibly not well
with his bike.
That possibility became a reality a few seconds
later as Victor went wide into Clervaux with his left hand raised and
was clearly seen to be looking down at his machine as he accelerated out
of Hawthorn to re-join the action.
It later transpired that Victor
was having trouble changing gear due to a bent gear change rod on his
Ninja ZX-10R. Despite this he battled on to bring the bike home in 14th
for two hard earned championship points which did little however to hide his bitter disappointment.
Conor
Cummins also endured a frustrating race at Croft and although 18th
equalled his best result of the year, he too was left pondering what
might have been.
Following the trend of the opening two rounds,
Conor quickened his pace over the two days of practice and qualifying,
held in both wet and dry conditions, and in the final qualifying
session, he was able to knock some 1.6s off his time to qualify in 22nd
place for a sixth row start.The race itself on Sunday saw dry conditions
and after maintaining his starting spot on the opening couple of laps,
Conor began to move forward and with Howie Mainwaring and Adam Jenkinson
going out in the second half of the race, he was able to cross the line
at the end of the 12 laps in 18th place thus equalling his result of
Oulton Park two weeks ago. Once again, he also lapped quicker in the
race than what he had done in qualifying although problems under
acceleration meant he wasn't happy with the end result.
Talking
later, Conor said; "Practice went well and, like always, I just chipped
away and got quicker with each and every session. I lost a bit of time
in second qualifying due to the padding on the seat moving around a bit
but I went over a second and a half quicker and to be only half a second
off the top 15 put me in a good frame of mind for the race."
"The
race itself though was the poorest I've had since I got back and
although it equalled my best finish of the season, it was very
frustrating. Although I was lapping quicker each time I went out, I was
struggling with the bike wheelying coming out of the corners and that
meant I was losing a lot of time along the straights so no sooner was I
gaining time, I was losing it straightaway. We thought we'd got it cured
for the race but it wasn't to be and I simply wasn't able to move
forward as I would have liked. Everyone's working really hard and I'm
edging ever closer to the top 15 and Championship points, so we'll keep
working hard and look at getting into the top 15 as soon as possible."
Photo: Victor Cox on the Blackhorse Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R
Courtesy: Simon Charity www.simonsracepics.co.uk