In what was his first competitive outing of the season, Ian
Lougher scored a top ten finish in the Superstock race in Saturday's
Relentless International North-West 200 in association with Blackhorse.
The meeting was useful preparation for the forthcoming Isle of Man TT
races, practice for which begins in two weeks time.
The first Superbike race began with disappointment
for Ian when oil was discovered leaking from his ZX-10 and he was left
with no alternative but to disappointingly wheel his bike off the grid.
Undaunted Ian returned to the
grid for Race 2 on the programme, the first of the two Supersport races.
At the end of the first lap he found himself down in 16th position just
behind Adrian Archibald and Gary Johnson, on the second lap he got
ahead of Johnson to move into 15th with Dan Kneen and Archibald in close
proximity. A lap later Ian was 14th and now on the back wheel of Kneen.
Positions remained relatively unchanged as they began their fifth and
final lap with Ian eventually finishing 13th just behind Olie Linsdell
and ahead of TAS Suzuki's Bruce Anstey.
Next up for Ian was the
Superstock race. The first scheduled Superstock practice session was
postponed on Tuesday evening due to a lack of time but the most
experienced rider at the event coped admirably with the tricky
conditions on Thursday morning, putting in ten laps to finish the
session in seventh position. In the race itself Ian got a decent start
from the second row of the grid and as they crossed the line at the end
of the opening lap he found himself in sixth place, just under a second
down on Guy Martin with John McGuinness, Michael Rutter and Cameron
Donald in hot pursuit. McGuinness got ahead of Ian and Guy Martin on the
second lap, thus relegating Ian to seventh as rain began to fall on
parts of the circuit. Behind them the threat was now starting to come
from Michael Dunlop. That threat materialised on Lap 3 as Dunlop moved
ahead of the battling duo but both Ian and Martin responded on the
fourth lap by posting faster laps than their young rival, Martin was now
sixth, with Dunlop seventh and Ian in eighth, now back in front of
McGuinness. At the flag a lap later Dunlop had once again got back to
sixth from Martin with Ian holding off a fresh challenge from McGuinness
to finish a fine eighth.
Ian opted to bring his
Superstock ZX-10 to the line for the second Superbike race and as they
completed the opening lap he was 11th just ahead of the TAS Suzuki duo
Cameron Donald and Bruce Anstey. On the next lap Anstey got ahead to
relegate Ian to 12th but he was back to 11th on Lap 3 when Conor Cummins
went out. As they began their final circuit, Ian was almost two seconds
down on the Kiwi but the Welshman responded by lapping over one and a
half seconds quicker than his rival to finish just 0.116 behind him at
the flag.
Ian's final race of the day was
the second Supersport event and again, as in the first race, he was
involved in a tussle with Dan Kneen and Olie Linsdell. This time however
Ian got the better of his rivals to finish 11th.
It's a return to short circuit
action for the team this weekend as Conor Cummins and David Pearce
compete in Round 4 of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 and 600
Championships at Cadwell Park.
