Press release:
The Linxcel-Seton Tuning Team turned up to a sun-drenched Thruxton circuit for round 4 of the British Superbike Series on the 29th – 31st May 2009, after having only 2 working days to prepare the bikes from the previous round at Donington.
The Hampshire circuit which is renowned for its bumps, is rarely used by motorcycles. It is considered one of the fastest tracks in the country with average speeds of over 110 mph.
There was no testing available prior to the race weekend and the team had to work hard to try and achieve a good base setting for the R6.
The Saturday qualifying sessions did not go as planned, with the team having concentrated on a race set up, they failed to find the optimum settings for qualifying on the softer tyres. This left Hudson Kennaugh in 23rd place on the Supersport gird and Nick Clark in 21st and Josh Wainwright in 23rd place on the Superstock grid.
On Saturday night the team made more changes to be tested in the morning warm up. These new settings worked well, leaving the team with a good set up for the forthcoming race.
The initial start of Supersport race was short lived with a crash on the 1st lap causing a red flag and re start. The 2nd attempt saw all the riders getting a clean get away. Hudson fought very hard to get through the pack picking off riders 1 by 1 to move up an amazing 15 places, to finish 8th and well within the points.
With the difficulties of qualifying and a crash on the 1st lap involving numerous riders, the Superstock race proved to be just as eventful as the Supersport. The crash early in the race had forced Josh Wainwright to stop completely to avoid it. This incident left Josh with a handicap that he was unable to overcome, and left him to finish in 23rd place
Nick Clark, however, was clear of the accident and pushed forward 7 places to achieve a finishing position of 14th place.
Phil Seton, team manager:
“The lack of testing available at this circuit meant this was going to be a difficult weekend for set up. The whole team had to dig in and work hard to get the results we did. All the riders rode very maturely in the situation to salvage the best results achievable."
Josh Wainwright, the teams youngest rider, commented on the weekends events:
“It was all going really well for me, right up to the actual race. Friday was the first time I’d even seen the Thruxton circuit, but right from the beginning I felt I was setting a good pace. Then we had the bad luck of the accident on the start line and I was unable to regain my original position. I’m looking forward to Snetterton though as I’ve been there quite a few times”.
Nick Clark:
“It was a difficult weekend, I didn’t get that comfortable on the bike and the qualifying was a lot lower than I’d hoped. We managed to find a better set up in warm up which resulted in me being able to make up as many place in the race. I was only 0.03 seconds lap slower than the leader. We improved, all be it a little bit late. I'm Really looking forward to getting back on the bike and I’m looking to improve on the qualifying to give a better shot for the race.”
The Linxcel-Seton Tuning teams next outing will be at their relatively local circuit, Snetterton on the 19th to 21st of June.
The team would like to extend their gratitude to the following companies for their support in the 2009 season.
Linxcel, Seton Tuning, Panther Security Systems, Standard Precision Engineering, TK Cope Moto, Motul, RST, HM Quickshifters, Esjot, Revolution Signs, GPR, PFM, Venhill, Powerbronze, Solo Corse, R&G, NGK, Dynapro, Lightech, DID, SBS, K-Tech, MCT, Profibre, MHP and Sigma, GBRacing and Amethyst Computer Services.
Photo credit - Eric O'Brien
