Brands Hatch Review & future testing.
Connor is looking forward to some much needed track time on the bike at Oulton Park this weekend, at the second round of the Wirral 100. In the first round, Neil Percival of Appleton MOT Centre kindly provided a bike so that he could get a bit of practise in before the first round of the BSB Superstock 600. Connor came a very respectable 6th in the race on a standard machine.
Brands Hatch was a steep learning curve for Connor, he had very little expectations due to lack of testing. Having only took delivery of the new Kawasaki ZX6R the week before the first round, it was a struggle to get the bike ready, but everything came together and Connor was able to get his first ride out, in Friday practise. His times improved throughout the weekend as he became more comfortable with the new machine, and was happy with 5th position in the shoot out race, which finalised the last ten positions on the grid for the main race on Monday.
Race day, starting from 31st on the grid was not ideal, but out of a huge entry of 62, to even qualify for the race was an achievement and wasn’t really expected considering that no testing had been done prior to the weekend. Connor got off to a poor start, but managed to climb a few positions before being forced to retire to the pits on the 12th lap with technical issues.
Overall it has been a positive weekend, with times and confidence improving, but with a lot of work still to be done. Big thanks go out to Dynopro-racing and Maxton Suspension for their input and also to Heather Whiting & Dean and also Richard from Torquay Motorcycles for providing the tyres.
Connor will be testing at Oulton Park this Friday 9th April, followed by the Wirral 100 meeting on the Saturday - reports to follow.
