Ramsey's Conor Cummins put in another superb ride in Sunday's Metzeler National 1000cc Superstock Championship at Thruxton when he took his Team Blackhorse Kawasaki to a hard fought fourth place. The 23-year old was in contention for the win throughout the 15-lap race and he crossed the line just 0.977s adrift of race winner Steve Plater for his second successive fourth place finish. The 13 points have also moved him up to a fighting third place overall in the Championship after the first two rounds.
Keen to carry on his Brands Hatch form, Conor was on the pace immediately and, after placing eighth in free practice, a lap of 1m18.045s in first qualifying saw him occupy a provisional fourth place on the grid. In the second and final 30-minute session he knocked a further 0.2s off his lap time and it was enough to see him move up to 3rd place overall for his first front row start of the year.With the Hampshire circuit bathed in glorious sunshine, a great start by the Manxman saw him slot in to second place at the end of the first 2.35-miles and here he remained for the next four laps as he closely shadowed the race leader and fellow Kawasaki rider Howie Mainwaring. There were no less than eight riders fighting it out for the lead and on the seventh lap, Conor got shuffled back to third place by Championship leader Steve Plater and third became fourth a lap later when Ian Hutchinson relegated him back another spot to fourth. However, the race was wide open as Mainwaring, Plater, Hutchinson and Conor broke away and decided the race amongst themselves. With little to choose between any of the four riders, and with riders defending their lines on the run in to the final chicane, overtaking chances were few and far between. Any chance of getting on to the podium disappeared on the final lap when yellow flags were being displayed and Conor had to settle for fourth once more but the results have already earmarked him down as a Championship contender and he heads in to the next round in confident mood.
Speaking afterwards, a delighted Conor commented; "It's been a solid opening two rounds for me and it was great to be fighting it out at the sharp end of the field once more. I got a great start and hung in there throughout but Ian (Hutchinson) kept defending his line on the way in to the final chicance in the last few laps and with the yellow flag being out on the last lap, I couldn't attempt to overtake. The bike was flying and everything was working well - we had the right gearing and the suspension was awesome so it was a strong race all round for us and the final result could have gone either way. There wasn't a lot of grip out on the circuit due to the heat but we brought it home and, overall, it's been a great weekend. Oulton Park is one of my strongest circuits so I can't wait to get there and challenge again for the race wins. The overall package we have is as good as anything out there so a big thanks to all the team and sponsors for making it happen and they've given me the platform to show what I can really do."Meanwhile David Pearce continued his encouraging start to his Metzeler National Superstock 600 campaign. The 16 year old just missed out on qualifying for the feature race when he finished twelfth in the 'shoot-out' race on Saturday. David was pushing for the all-important top ten placing when the race was stopped after five laps.
Starting from the fourth row of the grid, David moved up to ninth on the second lap and slipped one place to tenth for the next two laps. Going into the fifth lap he was still involved in a real scrap with fellow Kawasaki mounted Tom Fisher and Anthony Haywood and as they crossed the line at the end of the lap David was twelfth with only 0.413 secs separating the three, they in turn were less than half a second behind another three man battle in front.
However when Terry Cope unfortunately crashed, the race was red flagged and results were taken from the end of the previous lap, meaning that David unfortunately just failed to qualify for the main race.
Nevertheless a positive race meeting for the young rider who consistently put in respectable lap times throughout the weekend.
The third round of the Metzeler National 1000cc and 600cc Superstock Championships take place at Oulton Park, May 1-3.
