Monday, 22 July 2013

PODIUM FINISHES FOR SAMSUNG HONDA AT BRANDS HATCH

Samsung Honda became the first MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship team this season to finish a race with both riders on the podium, as Alex Lowes and Ryuichi Kiyonari claimed second and third respectively in the opening race of the day.

In race two, Lowes was again fighting for the win but in the closing stages was forced to settle for third. He scored his fifth double podium finish of the season, moving back up to second place in the championship standings in the process. Kiyonari put in another good performance and was battling hard to push Josh Brookes, finally ending the race fifth and retaining his position in the top six.

Lowes and Kiyonari
In the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship, Jason O’Halloran made improvements at Brands Hatch. His weekend started well when he qualified second on the grid, followed by a fantastic start off the line in the Sprint race. He battled hard throughout both races to achieve two top-five results.


Alex Lowes
I want to win every time we go out, we all do. Race one was the hardest race of the year for me so far, I haven’t had the pace I was hoping for this weekend and then I had a crash in warm up trying to improve the bike. I wanted to get a good start and get into a rhythm which I did and then Josh got passed me and I thought that was perfect I could follow him for a bit and then Shakey came by me and I just hung in there. I saw Shakey make a brave move from what looked like a long way back and I thought it was brave as you don’t realise how fast that part of the circuit is and I hope he is alright.
Overall I am happy, I tried as hard as I could, but I have got to be happy with second. Race two was quite a difficult race again as we made some changes between the races and I don’t know whether it was down to the temperature rising, but it didn't feel quite as good. I enjoyed the race though and I did my best to stay with Shakey and James; I had a go at the end and didn't give in. I don’t think I have been as fast this weekend but we tried hard and I am happy with two podium finishes and I am now looking forward to getting back to Oulton Park.


Lowes
Ryuichi Kiyonari
The first race was quite tough, we had made some changes after warm up and it didn't feel as good. It was hard to push as hard as I would have liked. It is good to be on the podium but I wasn't happy with my pace because I couldn't get closer to Josh and Alex at the end of the race. In race two we tried hard but I couldn't push as much as we would like. I now look forward to Suzuka and the Eight Hour race.

Kiyonari
Jason O’Halloran
I gave 100% in both races today, but I just couldn't quite hang onto the lead group. I was losing out in a few areas which made it difficult, but I pushed right to the end in both races and finished 1.2 seconds from the winner in race one and 1.8 seconds in race two. Two fifth places is not what I go racing for but that's the best I can do at the minute.

O'Halloran
Havier Beltran
From a team perspective this has been a great weekend; we are the first team to have two riders on the podium together and also remain the only team to have two riders in the top six so it is a credit to the team. Alex continues to show maturity that we haven’t seen from him in previous seasons but we need to find that missing link to be able to challenge Shakey for the wins at every round. However we are confident that we can do that and we look forward to the next round. Kiyo continues to be pushing forward and is revitalised from earlier in the season and he also has the Eight Hour to look ahead to. We have a direction to move forward now and that means we will see more of the old Kiyo. Jason made progress between the races but we still have more improvements to make and it is just a matter of time before it clicks. We moved forward this weekend but not enough unfortunately to be up on the podium.

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