Fourth Win for Fitzpatrick
Craig Fitzpatrick took his fourth straight win on the BLDS
Couriers Yamaha at round found of the Fuchs-Silkolene British
Supersport Championship at Donington Park. Fitzpatrick also
managed to finish in a strong eighth place in the overall
Championship result.
In the windy conditions at Donington and with mixed weather
throughout the weekend the 30-year-old now living in Alfreton
rode consistently throughout and was keen to further extend
his lead in the Cup series.
In the first practice session on Saturday he managed to finish
in fifth position at the end of the session. Four extra riders
were present at Donington Park, all from the exclusive World
Supersport series who were at the circuit for testing purposes
in preparations for their race at Donington later in the year.
Fitzpatrick finished the opening session only 1.4 seconds
behind World Supersport contender Andrew Pitt.
The opening qualifying session was dry and Fitzpatrick did
a time which would see him qualify in twelfth position on
the grid. Heavy rain showers on Sunday afternoon saw the circuit
turn extremely greasy and Fitzpatrick opted out of the second
session in the hope of a dry race on the Monday.
Luckily for him it was dry although it was extremely windy.
A good start saw Fitzpatrick move to ninth position by the
end of the opening lap, a fraught battling was taking place
for seventh place and Fitzpatrick got pushed wide on lap 13
and was pushed back from seventh to tenth place. Crossing
the line in tenth place the two Hannspree riders were later
excluded from the results promoting Fitzpatrick to eighth
place.
Speaking with Craig after the race he said “I’m
really pleased to get another win in the Cup and I’m
pretty happy with my overall result too. The weather played
havoc with everyone this weekend and with the track being
so slippery throughout the weekend it made it hard to find
a good race set up. With were working hard with the suspension
people and trying and testing different aspects and we have
definitely made progress with the bike this weekend and hope
we continue to move forward at the remaining races left. We
have a bit of a break now which is ideal as it allows me to
do a bit of work on the bike and to see if we can get anything
more from it. I’m looking forward to Snetterton in a
couple of weeks time.”
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