Bad Fortunes for Centurion Racing
 Centurion
Racing had a tough weekend at the second round of the Maxxis
British Supersport Championship at Thruxton Circuit this weekend.
After a great Qualifying day on Saturday with all three riders
making it into the top 15, the team's luck changed dramatically
on Sunday when Dennis Hobbs, riding an impressive race and
against the factory-built bikes of Glen Richards and Steve
Brogan was the hapless victim of a seventh lap rear-end double
shunt at the s-bend chicanes at the hands of James Webb.
This lost Dennis his third place position, and the crash
caused the deployment of the safety car. Dan Cooper suffered
with technical problems with the Centurion Honda on the race
day and was forced to retire. With both Centurion riders out
of the race, it was left to James Westmoreland to secure the
team a result in the 18-lap race with 15th place.
The trio of riders started well at the super fast 2.4-mile
circuit and had all qualified well with Hobbs in fifth, Cooper
in ninth and Westmoreland in 14th place. Cooper had a slow
crash in first qualifying on Saturday and due to the extremely
high curbs at Thruxton, and unluckily wrote off his number
one bike. He was left with just one bike for the second qualifying
session and the race.
This was the first race of the year for the riders, as the
first round of the Championship at Brands Hatch was cancelled
due to heavy snow. With varying weather conditions at Thruxton
the team had to try many different set-ups on their machines.
Hobbs managed to qualify on provisional pole in the first
qualifying session but was pushed down the pack in the second
session.
Dennis Hobbs suffered a dislocated shoulder in the crash
during the race and commented "I'm not very happy at
the moment as I was running well in the race and out of no-where
James hit me and hit me hard, and I'm in a fair bit of pain
but hopefully all will be ok for Oulton. I don't seem to have
much luck with other riders but hopefully I can bounce back
from this one too and get the season started at Oulton."
Dan Cooper said "I'm gutted not to
have been able to finish the race as during the wet qualifying
sessions I was running pretty high up and feeling really good
on the bike. After half distance today in the race I was struggling
really badly with grip on the rear tyre and this circuit is
so hard on tyres that it just wasn't physically possible for
me to carry on. I'm gutted for my team as they've all worked
really hard."
James Westmoreland added "I'm disappointed
for all the team and all the Centurion riders as it's not
been the best of weekends for us. It's a real shame when everyone
has worked so hard and I wish I could have got a stronger
result than this but it was the best I could manage this weekend.
That was the first time that I rode that bike in the dry conditions
and it wasn't set up as I'd like it. I had a few problems
with my tyres and just couldn't get any further through the
pack. I like Oulton Park so hopefully we'll all be able to
get some good results for the team there. I hope Dennis has
a quick recovery and is back fit for then."
The next race is at Oulton Park on the 3rd - 5th May.
2008 Races
Round 2 - 18th - 20th April - Thruxton
Round 3 - 3rd - 5th May - Oulton Park
Round 1 - 10th - 11th May - Brands Hatch (Re-Run)
Round 4 - 24th - 26th May - Donington Park, Leics
Round 5 - 13th - 15th June - Snetterton, Norfolk
Round 6 - 27th - 29th June - Mallory Park
Round 7 - 18th - 20th July - Oulton Park, Cheshire
Round 8 - 8th - 10th August - Knockhill, Fife
Round 9 - 23rd - 25th August - Cadwell Park, Lincs
Round 10 - 12th - 14th September - Croft, North Yorkshire
Round 11 - 26th - 28th September, Silverstone, Northants
Round 12 - 10th - 12th October - Brands Hatch Indy, Kent
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