Rollercoaster weekend as
Laverty storms to seasons
best!
British Superbikes
John Laverty took a career best 4th place in race 2 at Mallory Park only to be left thinking what could have been?
Laverty who had excellent pace throughout the free practice sessions worked hard over the weekend concentrating on a race set-up for the two gruelling 30 lap encounters on Sunday. Laverty made it all the way through to the final 10 and qualifying session 3, posting a time of 56.3 seconds on the 1.41 mile circuit. Laverty would start from 5th and a seasons best only just missing out on the front row.
A good start in race 1 saw John in 6th place and within touching distance of the lead, a six way battle carried on for the next 20 laps until an incident on the 22nd lap caused the leading 6 riders to fall at the hairpin.
Through no fault of the five unfortunate riders behind Josh Brookes, the red
flags were brought out and the race was declared with all six leading riders being
eliminated from the final standings as they were not in contact with their
machines at the time of the red flag.
Race 2 and the storm clouds loomed and the heavens opened, a ten minute free
practice was given prior to the race as there had been no previous wet weather
riding over the weekend.
An excellent start saw John maintain 5th place for the opening laps before setting
the fastest lap of the race and passing Richard Cooper for 4th place. Closing in on
the three leading riders John was confident of his first podium before the race
was stopped due to standing water and safety concerns on lap 17 .
Two brilliant races by John and his team who deserved much more.
Tristan Palmer took to his local track hoping to improve on his recent results at Knockhill. After working hard on set-up throughout the free practice sessions, Tristan ended qualifying 1 in 8th within a last gasp lap, qualifying 2 saw Tristan end up 13th for a fourth row starting position. Race 1 and Tristan got away to a good start battling with Gowland, and Johnson all race for 13, 14 and 15th place. On lap 22 the carnage with the leading bunch meant Tristan would cross line the in 12th place.
Race 2 and Tristan was forced to start from the back row of the grid after a technical issue prior to race. A great start saw Tristan up to 16th by the end of lap 1 and then up to 13th on lap 4. Tristan eventually battled through to 12th place, a great ride after having to start from 26th. |
