Victor Cox secured his maiden podium finish in the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship when he finished second in Round 7 of the series at Oulton Park at the weekend.
As in the previous round at the Snetterton 300 circuit, Cox was on the pace throughout with the team again working hard to achieve a great set-up with the Ninja ZX-10R. Victor finished Friday's free practice in third position with a time of 1m:40.13s, just under half a second off the quickest time and in the top five through all three sectors.
He then went over a second quicker in first qualifying to maintain third place and despite slipping slightly to fifth in the second session he still lined up on the grid with a combined qualification of third.
The rain which had been forecast arrived at the Cheshire circuit on race day morning and it was still present as the race got underway. Victor got a good start and at the end of the opening lap he was holding third position, three seconds down on Adam Jenkinson and Howie Mainwaring but one second clear of the chasing pack.
Mainwaring went out of the race on the next lap and Cox was up to second with fellow Kawasaki mounted Danny Buchan in third and the rest now starting to drop back as the weather began to deteriorate.
Riding calmly and assuredly in the extremely tricky conditions, Victor continued to hold on to second as positions remained the same until the fifth lap when Buchan, who was still running in third place, crashed heavily at Old Hall corner as the rain now poured down.
The race was red-flagged and a result declared, and it was a delighted Victor who took his place on the podium, runner-up to Adam Jenkinson and in turn well clear of third place man John McGuinness.
Straight from the Southern 100 on the Isle of Man, Conor Cummins linked up with the Blackhorse Kawasaki squad and after taking 20th in the free practice session, Conor improved his times in both of the qualifying sessions and with a best time of 1m:40.80s in Saturday's final session, he lined up in 16th place on the grid for the 14-lap race, his best dry qualifying position of the year.
Although he didn't make the
best of starts, by the end of the first lap Conor had worked his way up
to 13th. A lap later he was up to 11th and on lap three he overtook
Marshall Neill to move up into the top ten. Lapping strongly, Conor had
the group battling for fourth ahead of him but when Buchan crashed out
and the race was stopped, Conor was awarded 9th place for his first
points of the year, a brilliant effort and result given the conditions.After originally finishing in 9th place at the conclusion of the race, Conor was then promoted to 7th after both Tristan Palmer and David Johnson were excluded. The GBmoto Racing riders were both removed from the results after failing a post race technical inspection.
Speaking later, a pleased Conor said: "Conditions were really bad out there and I could barely see the rider in front of me - it was only when they braked that they came into my sight! There was lots of standing water and grip was practically non-existent so everyone was having moments. I just tried to keep it as smooth as possible and find a good line, which was easier said than done! It was hard to overtake as you had to go off line but I managed to pick a few of them off and had the group ahead of me in my sights when the red flag came out.
It really was horrendous but I'm chuffed to bits with not only my first points of the season but also a top ten finish so a big thanks to everyone in the Blackhorse Kawasaki team and to all my sponsors for sticking by me - I'm definitely heading in the right direction and things are getting better all the time."
Unfortunately the Metzeler National Superstock 600 race was cancelled as the worsening weather conditions caused the meeting to be abandoned, the race will now take place at a future date. However Brad Anderson did have the chance to get more valuable laps in during Free Practice and Qualifying in what was only his second race meeting back from injury.
It's a three-week break before the next round of the Metzeler National Superstock Championships with Brands Hatch hosting Round 8 on August 5-7.
Photos:
Victor Cox and Conor Cummins on the Blackhorse Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R's
Courtesy:
Simon Charity
www.simonsracepics.co.uk