Centurion Racing suffered a mixed weekend of results at round ten of the Maxxis British Supersport Championship at Croft Circuit, North Yorkshire. Running strong throughout the weekend riders James Westmoreland and Dan Cooper achieved a varied set of results with Westmoreland gaining a confidence boosting eighth place and Cooper crashing out whilst lying in a fantastic eleventh position.
The youngsters soon got to grips with the technical 2.12-mile circuit and made good progress throughout practice and qualifying sessions. With Westmoreland consistently running within the top ten and just dropping back to 13th in overall qualifying. Whilst Cooper was making steady in roads all weekend and moving up the time sheets seeing him qualify 12th, his best qualifying position to date.
Holding his position off the line Cooper gained a great start and remained 13th after the first lap. Making a move on Sam Owens on lap four he soon began to calve his way through the pack. Looking strong and setting consistently fast lap times, the youngster from Stroud entered the first corner on lap nine too fast and tucked the front forcing him out the race. Dislocating his right shoulder Cooper was unable to remount and finish, after seeking medical attention he is hoping to be fully fit by Cadwell Park.
A disappointed Cooper commented “I’m totally gutted, that’s the first time in three years that I’ve crashed in a race. It’s a real shame as I’d improved throughout the weekend and I felt really happy with the way things were going. I’m totally gutted and feel sorry for the team and all my mechanics that worked so hard at Croft. We’d made some big progress here and I was hoping that I could get a decent result to say thanks. My shoulder is very sore but hopefully I will be fully fit by Cadwell in a couple of weeks time.”
19-year-old Westmoreland got tangled up in a number of first lap incidents which pushed him down to 18th position after the first lap. With the safety car being dispatched onto the circuit whilst the stricken debris was cleared Westy was unable to make a move until the car pulled back into the pits. Losing four valuable laps to the safety car the youngster rode an awesome and mature race to bring him back through the pack. As he mastered and manoeuvred his way through the field he was sitting happily in a top ten position by lap 11 of the 18-lap race. With Michael Laverty retiring and passing Alex Lowes, Westy gained a healthy eighth place and another Cup win for the Centurion Team.
He said “After a tough qualifying day on Saturday, I refocused myself and came up with the goods on race day. I got a really bad start and gave myself a lot of work to do but I chipped away and managed to finish eighth. The times I did should have been good enough for fourth or fifth position but these things happen and I will take the positives out of the weekend and look forward to Cadwell. I’d like to thank the whole team, my family, fans and Dunlop for a job well done.”
The next Supersport race is at Cadwell Park on the 25th – 27th August.
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