Navigation

Victor Cox rounded off his 2010 season with Blackhorse Kawasaki in fine style when he took the team's Ninja Superstock ZX-10R to two top six places in the final rounds of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship at Oulton Park.

The penultimate race of the championship on Saturday was actually the cancelled race from Silverstone two weeks ago. Grid positions were determined by qualifying for that race which meant that Victor was on the third row of the grid in ninth place. As the riders streamed across the line at the end of the opening lap, Cox had maintained his ninth place just ahead of Luke Quigley and only 0.16 behind Jimmy Storrar and Scott Smart. It was a case of 'how you were' for the next few laps with Cox still in 9th and still just ahead of Quigley with the duo putting pressure on Smart and Storrar with Joe Burns a further half second ahead.

On lap four Quigley got ahead of Cox with Howie Mainwaring now becoming a threat, but Victor fought back on the next lap to re-claim ninth and he was still just behind Smart and Burns and just ahead of Mainwaring with nothing to separate them. At the halfway point Cox was up to eighth, half a second behind Smart and being pressed by Mainwaring who got past a lap later to relegate him to ninth again. A real scrap was ensuing between Victor, Barry Burrell, Quigley, Smart and Mainwaring with just over one second covering them. Positions remained relatively unchanged on the next lap and on lap ten Mainwaring moved up to fifth with Victor still in the mix for a place in the top six.

On the penultimate lap Cox got back in front of Smart to move into eighth and was now just 0.4 seconds off sixth place. The crowd at the circuit and Eurosport viewers watched with excitement as Cox, Quigley and Burrell dashed for the line with Victor just getting the verdict from Quigley by the slender margin of 0.01 seconds with Burrell just 0.04 adrift.   
A brilliant ride from Cox who was third quickest through the finish line speed trap and also third best in the third sector.

Race one did Victor's confidence no measure of harm at all and he lined up for the second race on Sunday determined to secure another good result for himself and the team, and he didn't disappoint. Again from the third row of the grid he got a great start and as they completed the first circuit he found himself in seventh just behind Richard Cooper and ahead of Luke Quigley, Howie Mainwaring, Kenny Gilbertson and Jimmy Storrar with a slight gap to Steve Plater.

Positions remained the same on the next lap and on the third lap Cooper began to pull away in fifth, Scott Smart was now 6th, Mainwaring 7th and Cox 8th, half second clear of Quigley with Plater losing touch slightly. On the next lap Sam Warren crashed out of fourth at Brittens which promoted Victor to 7th. However Quigley got ahead on the fifth lap to relegate him to eighth with Plater now threatening in ninth.
The see-saw race continued on the following lap as Victor moved back to 7th and holding on to Quigley with Plater still watching from behind as Smart slipped to 9th. Cox moved to sixth on lap seven as Mainwaring crashed out at Knickerbrook and he managed to extend a slight advantage on Plater on lap eight as he determinedly held on to sixth whilst keeping the pressure on fifth place man Quigley whom he passed on the next lap to close right up on fourth place man Cooper.

Victor and the Ninja ZX-10R were right on song and on lap ten he found himself in fourth at the expense of Cooper with Plater still very much in touch and the local man got in front of Cox on the penultimate circuit to claim fourth with Cooper now pressurising in sixth. However the Kawasaki rider wasn't finished and he hounded Plater all the way to the finish, whilst defending his fifth place from Richard Cooper, and at the line he was only 0.09 seconds away from fourth with Cooper rounding out the top six.

A superb end to Victor's 2010 campaign, with his highest placing of the season and the Trowbridge rider finishes an excellent eighth in the championship.

For David Pearce it was a difficult weekend. Despite lapping 0.2 seconds quicker in second qualifying he slipped from 19th to 30th, such is the competitive nature of the Metzeler National Superstock 600 series. David eventually finished 27th in a race where he experienced brake fade in the early stages as he climbed to 22nd place. Running on at the chicane and into the barriers, he gamely re-joined the race in 33rd position after losing 14 seconds due to his unavoidable excursion off the track. He was disappointed in the end but did have the consolation of posting the second quickest time through the Sector 2 speed trap.