Victor Cox rode superbly in the latest round of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship to finish an excellent second in Round 10 of the series at Donington Park on Sunday. It was a good weekend for the team with Conor Cummins finishing in 14th place for another points score.
Cox had once again been impressive in qualifying. He was well on the pace throughout the first session and quickest through the Sector One speed trap, with his last lap of 1m:33.57s placing him third quickest and the top Kawasaki rider. A more subdued 17th in the second session did nothing to harm Victor's combined qualifying and he again found himself in a now familiar front row position on the grid with his Ninja ZX-10R still the top placed Kawasaki.
The race got underway in dry conditions, as the pack swept through the Craner Curves Victor had settled nicely into fifth and as they went down the Hangar Straight he was up to fourth. Things improved further for him at the end of the lap as Adam Jenkinson ran wide at Goddards allowing him through to third. Positions were changing back and forth in the early stages of the second circuit and, with Cox in fourth, the safety car came out following an incident at the Melbourne Loop. The safety car remained on the track for a further two laps and on Lap 5 they were racing again with Victor determinedly defending his fourth place from Adam Jenkinson. On Lap 6 a group of five riders, including Cox, had edged a slight gap on the rest of the field. Victor was still in fourth as they went on to their seventh circuit, but on the approach to the Melbourne Loop Jenkinson got through on the inside to relegate him to fifth.
Jenkinson began to pull away
very slightly and Victor was now coming under a bit of pressure from
Luke Quigley. On the ninth lap, the safety car again made an appearance
for three laps and as racing resumed Victor set about catching the four
riders in front and there was drama to come at the end of the
penultimate lap. Race leader Richard Cooper led into Goddards, but
behind him Howie Mainwaring had gone in a bit hot and he parted company
with his bike. Adam Jenkinson also went down as Tristan Palmer took
avoiding action. Victor meanwhile didn't need a second invitation and
seized his chance to move into second. However with one lap to go he
still had some work to do as Luke Quigley and David Johnson were
battling hard for the final podium place just over a second adrift. Cox
though wasn't going to let this opportunity slip and with great
composure he held on to bring the Ninja ZX-10R home in second and the
highest placed Kawasaki in the race, his delight apparent as he crossed
the line. He was again fastest through the Sector 1 speed trap and also quickest through the second sector, whilst his second visit to the podium this year moves him another two places up the championship table to seventh.
Victor Cox: 'When the safety car went in for the second time, I lost a bit of ground on the riders in front and I was trying to catch them up. I had closed the gap a little and I could see the three coming together at Goddards and I just made the most of it. The team have been fantastic and have worked great all weekend.'
Conor Cummins' determined riding of recent weeks was finally rewarded when the Manx ace finished back inside the points and his, and the team's efforts, throughout the three days of action saw them take 14th place and two well earned Championship points.
With another different circuit to tackle on the new ZX-10R Kawasaki, Conor steadily improved his pace over the two days of practice and qualifying around the 2.5-mile Leicestershire venue and after placing 26th in the opening qualifying session on Friday, he was able to reduce his time considerably during the second and final session the next day. Indeed, a time of 1m:35.17s saw him take almost a second off his time and it promoted him up to 23rd on the grid, good enough for a sixth row start.
Sunday's 15-lap race was the final race on a busy schedule but it finally got underway at 5.35pm and a good opening lap resulted in Conor moving up the order to 21st place. When the safety car pulled in at the end of lap 4, Conor began to put pressure on those riders in front of him. Indeed, on lap 7 he jumped up to 19th and this became 17th two laps later when Leon Hunt and Joe Burns disappeared from the action. In a race of high attrition and the safety car again deployed from laps 10-12, it meant a three-lap dash to the flag for the remainder of the 40-strong grid. With further incidents taking place out on the circuit, Conor was promoted up the order to 14th and it was here where he finished, less than three seconds off a top ten finish.
Speaking later, a pleased Conor said: "It started off as a really tough weekend but I really enjoyed the race and to come away with more points is really satisfying. I really struggled to get the bike set up during practice and the suspension was causing me a number of issues, being too soft on the front and too hard on the rear. I was running wide going into the corners and struggling for grip on the exits so it was hard on both counts but we made improvements all the time and after final qualifying we were a lot closer to where we wanted to be. It was quite windy out there but the bike was working well and I wanted to get points on the board again so I'm glad that I've been able to achieve that once more. Like I say, we were chasing our tails a bit during practice and qualifying but we improved the bike and made progress all the time so I'm really chuffed to have scored points again especially as it was a really hectic race with a lot of the boys being all over the shop! It's been a constructive weekend, one that's had a good, happy ending and that means I can head to the next round at Silverstone with that added bit of confidence."
It's a short break now before the championship action resumes with the penultimate round of the series taking place at Silverstone, Northants on September 23-25.
In the interim team manager/rider Ian Lougher will be aiming to add to his tally of wins at Oliver's Mount, Scarborough when he takes part in the Steve Henshaw International Gold Cup meeting at Scarborough this weekend.