Press Release:Round three of the British Supersport Championship held at Donington Park proved to be a tough weekend for the Colchester-based Linxcel-Seton Tuning race team.
For the second consecutive weekend running, the team’s sole rider in the series, Hudson Kennaugh, dominated qualifying to put his Yamaha R6 on pole and so Kennaugh and team manager Phil Seton’s attention was directed towards bike setup and tyre choice for the race.
“Myself and Hudson sat down to decide which tyre choice would provide the best performance,“ said Seton. “Hudson was happy with the soft-compound tyre although we knew its performance would not last for the entire race.
“Given he was on pole, we agreed he would be able to open up a six second gap during the first half of the race so that when the tyres started to wear-out, he would have a big enough lead to take the win.”
The race started as planned with Kennaugh taking an early lead.
Kennaugh:
“I got a good start and managed to build up a lead of around five seconds. On lap nine the tyres started to go off but the wear was a lot more severe than we had anticipated, and it was all I could do to bring the bike home in 15th position.
“Obviously, this was not the result we were expecting but again the team has proved that we have a formidable package with outstanding performance capable of setting the quickest lap times.”
The team’s two riders in the National Superstock 600 class, Nick Clark and Josh Wainwright, had a challenging weekend.
Clark: “It’s been a difficult weekend. We changed the setup during practice and qualifying but nothing fully fell into place.
“Starting from 18th on the grid wasn’t good enough but when the race started I managed to overtake a load of riders into the first corner until a rider fell in front of me and I had no where to go but into the gravel. When I rejoined the circuit I was last by about three seconds. I managed to pick my way through the field and by the last lap I had overtaken about eighteen riders to finish 16th.
“I was pleased with the pace of the bike as I got used to the race setup and our lap times were comparable to the guys that finished in 4th and 5th places.”
Seton: “It was a tough weekend for both Nick and Josh. Nick was unfortunate in the first corner and without that he would have been on for a top-10 finish. Josh finished in 26th place. We know he is a great rider but the setup just hasn’t clicked into place with him yet. We think it’s only a matter of time though.”
The Linxcel-Seton Tuning race team will continue their campaign at the next round of the British Superbikes at Thruxton 29th – 31st May 2009.
Image: Derek Ralph - DJ Photo
