Mixed Fortunes for Centurion Racing
It was a mixed weekend for the Centurion Racing team at
round four of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship.
Riders James Westmoreland and Daniel Cooper gained a 10th
and 19th place respectively in the 18-lap race.
With wintry conditions hitting Donington Park over the weekend,
making it difficult to find good tyres and a good bike set
up on their Honda 600 machines. Both riders struggled during
qualifying to get a good feeling on the bike at the technical
2.5-mile circuit. With Westmoreland qualifying in a respectable
ninth place and Cooper in a low 19th position. Westmoreland
moved to sixth fastest in the wet qualifying and found a good
race set up for the wet but although bad weather was predicted
on Monday the blustery winds enabled it to stay dry. Cooper
crashed in second qualifying early in the session at the first
corner and was unable to rejoin the session.
Four World Supersport riders joined the British Championship
this weekend in preparation for their race at Donington in
September, Andrew Pitt, Jonathan Rea, Craig Jones and Miguel
Praia. Pitt and Rea were later excluded from their first and
second place due to fuel regulations. It was a good opportunity
for the Centurion Riders to gain some vital knowledge and
information from some of the World's best riders.
During the 18-lap race Westy was locked in a tight battle
with Craig Fitzpatrick, Paul Young, BJ Toal, Ben Wylie and
Sam Owens for tenth position, they fought for positions lap
after lap with young Westmoreland eventually getting the better
of Toal, Wylie and Owens over the finish line and securing
12th position, being promoted to 10th after the race classification
was amended.
Dan Cooper struggled all weekend with the Centurion Honda
and despite the best efforts of the mechanics was unable to
find a comfortable and good bike set up. Fighting with grip
throughout the race Cooper was unable to better his qualifying
position and sadly could only manage 19th place overall, his
worst result this year.
Speaking with Westy he said "It's been quite a difficult
weekend for the team and we couldn't get things to work just
how we'd like them to. I was having a few problems in the
race with grip towards the closing stages and had to fight
hard to bring it home in a good top ten place. Hopefully things
will be ok for Snetterton and with any luck we'll have nice
weather there too!"
Cooper commented "I'm gutted to have finished so low
down the field, I was really finding it difficult to control
the bike in the conditions and found it hard with grip also
similar to Westy. I don't think the weather conditions over
the weekend helped matters at all, I'm not the heaviest of
people and fighting with the wind during the race was very
hard. I'm really gutted for the team also as they've all been
working so hard. I just want to move on from this and get
back on track and in the points at Snetterton."
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