Stunning Results for Centurion
Not only was the weather stunning at Brands Hatch but as
were the results from the Centurion Racing team. James Westmoreland
and Dan Cooper secured two fantastic results in the rescheduled
Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship at Brands
Hatch, taking a fourth and 11th place respectively.
Having already qualified at the beginning of April, before
the race was abandoned due to heavy snow, the Centurion duo
had put their Honda's in 12th, Westy and 20th, Cooper on the
grid. The race initially was the opening round of the Championship
and the two were struggling to get to grips with their new
Pirelli tyres and therefore were unable to place themselves
higher on the starting grid.
In the two hot practice sessions on Saturday they were flying
and were setting some extremely fast lap times with Westy
setting the third quickest time in the second practice session
and Cooper in sixth, it was looking likely that they would
be able to make the best of their low qualifying positions.
In an action packed race, which saw the safety car deployed
on two occasions they were able to make the most of the 18-lap
battle and score two solid results for the Centurion Racing
team. The safety car was despatched on the first lap after
two separate crashes involving various riders at Paddock Hill
and also Druids corner. The riders lined up in formation waiting
for the lights on the car to be turned off.
The race got underway again on lap three and Westy was through
to 12th on lap four and Cooper had slipped back to 18th place.
Westy was making huge progress through the pack and was up
to seventh by lap nine with Cooper in 17th position. The safety
car was once again called out on lap 11 when Chris Martin
and Aaron Walker crashed out in two different incidents. Cooper
was making the most of the falling riders in front of him
and he was eagerly pushing his way through the pack and getting
up to 13th by lap 14 and was eyeing up a top ten finish. He
was locked in a tight battle with Andy Weymouth and Paul Young
for ninth place and only 0.2 split the trio as they reached
the chequered flag where he gained 11th. Westy pushed hard
and made some unbelievable passing manoeuvres around the outside
of Clearways and the outside of Paddock Hill, both times pulling
the moves off and making tidy passes on Craig Fitzpatrick
and BJ Toal, sealing him a well earned fourth position.
James Westmoreland was delighted with his
result saying "I'm so pleased for the team that we have
managed to achieve what we did today. It's been a long time
coming, I gained a fourth place last year at Thruxton and
it's a really nice feeling being there again. I'm eager for
these results to carry on for the rest of the season and there
should be no reasons why I can't make that happen. I love
Donington Park and it would be good to be fighting at the
front end again there. I really enjoyed the scrap and thanks
again to all the guys at Centurion Racing for working so hard."
Dan Cooper commented "Considering my
poor qualifying position it's great to be pushing with the
boys and fighting for a top ten position. We'd not had much
track time when we came here in April and it was taking me
a little while to get used to the new tyres and dusting up
on my riding skills again. I was running really well in practice
here and it was a shame we'd already qualified as I think
I would have got an even better result if I'd not started
from 20th on the grid. I'm really pleased for the team as
they've all been working really hard and it would be good
to continue this into the next races."
General Manager/Team Owner Paul Rees said "Westy
and Dan pushed hard this weekend knowing that they had to
salvage a result from the qualifying positions they attained
in April. Some good clean 'scraps' were had on the track as
they moved there way through the pack. Exciting to watch them
both out there and there will be many more of those results
coming our way with the new improvements to the bikes that
the engineers are working so hard at. Gary Stubbington (Race
Manager) and myself would like to thank all the support and
messages received from the people who follow us as a team,
and this is what it is all about, team work. Congratulations
to all".
Race Result
Hudson Kennaugh Yamaha
Glen Richards Triumph
Steve Brogan Honda
James Westmoreland Centurion Racing Honda
BJ Toal Yamaha
Craig Fitzpatrick Yamaha
Ian Hutchinson Yamaha
Marty Nutt Yamaha
Andy Weymouth Yamaha
Paul Young Triumph
Dan Cooper Centurion Racing Honda
Championship Positions
1 Richards 65
2 Kennaugh 58
3 Brogan 52
9th Westmoreland 19
12th Cooper 14
|
