Motorpoint British Supersport
After a very disappointing weekend at Donington Park a few weeks ago, where Ben Wilson on the Gearlink Kawasaki was unfortunate to crash out in both races from a potential podium position, the Gearlink Kawasaki team moved to Assen this weekend for round 10 of the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship. Ben made steady progress throughout the weekend at a track he has never ridden at and secured two seventh place finishes.
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Ben Wilson- with our Akrapovic pipes and Galfer brakes |
It has been a hard and testing season for Ben and the Gearlink Kawasaki team and he is still chasing a race win. With no data for the technical Assen circuit the team were on the back foot and spent the two practice sessions on Friday trying to find a good set up on the Kawasaki. After a few initial problems Ben was able to improve his times drastically for the qualifying session on Saturday and put the Gearlink Kawasaki into fourth place on the grid for the first Sprint race.
Team-mate Dan Cooper who has also never ridden at the Dutch circuit struggled throughout the weekend to find a good set up which in turn was affecting his tyre wear. He qualified in 26th place and managed to work his way through to 24th in race one and 17th in race two.
Ben - "This year sadly isn't meant to be my year I've just had no luck really and I guess with such an amazing year last year it was always going to be hard to better that. I had two really good opportunities at Donington and both times it all went wrong and I guess I had dented the confidence a bit. It was hard coming to Assen having never been here before and having to learn the track on Friday, we found it difficult initially to find a good set up on the Gearlink Kawasaki but got things sorted for Saturday. I got two good starts in both races but it was just difficult on top end speed to stay with the leaders and in race two we picked the wrong tyre and it just didn't go the distance. I just hope I can get one race win before the end of the season for myself and the Gearlink Kawasaki team as they have worked so hard all year. Once I got up to speed with learning Assen it's a great track and I'd look forward to riding there again in the future."
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Dan Cooper- loking forward to Silverstone |
Dan - "I'm glad to have been back riding for the Gearlink Kawasaki team this weekend in Assen; I found it quite hard to learn the circuit in such a short space of time. We were struggling to find a good set up over the weekend and the dodgy track and weather conditions hindered our progress in qualifying. I had two average races and my lap times improved all weekend but I just feel disappointed with the results and that I let the team down."
Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "I'm pretty happy with how the weekend went in Assen for the team, we have never been to the track before so I am really pleased with what Ben managed to achieve this weekend. He got to grips with the track really quickly and by qualifying on the Saturday morning he managed to put in a good time which put him on the front row and matched a lot of the riders times that have visited Assen previously.
We took a gamble in race two and went with an SC0 tyre, I believe we were the only ones on the grid that did as we thought we had nothing to lose. Sadly it just didn't last and he did well to manage to finish the race in seventh as there was nothing left of the tyre when he came into Parc Ferme.
We would like to congratulate MSVR and everyone involved in taking BSB to Assen, it was a fantastic track, great facilities and a huge crowd and everyone did a great job on putting on such a brilliant event. Gearlink Kawasaki, as a team thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and it was a good decision to go and we are privileged to have gone to such a superb venue.
We have a short turn around now before Silverstone and thankfully all the bikes are in one piece we are looking forward to getting back to a track we know and getting some more good results with Ben."
For more information on Gearlink Kawasaki please visit: www.gearlinkracing.com
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