The young-gun line up of Tommy Hill, Billy McConnell and Kieran Clarke are looking forward to trying their luck on Irish soil in the fifth round of the British Superbike Championship this weekend at Mondello Park, Ireland (19-21 May). Team Virgin Mobile Yamaha had a mixed bag of results at Oulton Park in Cheshire two weeks ago on board their Yamaha YZF-R1s.
Lead rider, 21 year old Tommy Hill, finished strongly in both races with ninth and seventh position despite having a bad crash in warm up which nearly wrote off his number one bike. He said: “I had a problem with pump-up in my arms during the races at Oulton but I still managed to keep focussed and get results. The bike set up is right and I am keen to get out there at Mondello and have a good race.”
Aussie Billy McConnell, 19, found the circuit tough going but still had a useful weekend, taking 18th in race one but crashing out later in race two. He said: “I need to stop thinking about this second race jinx, it’s beginning to get on my nerves. The weather forecast looks showery for the weekend which suits us with the Pirelli tyres going well in the wet. It's still quite early on in the season and I am learning all the time.”
It was a flare up of an old injury which put pay to Kieran Clarke’s chances at Oulton after triggering an old leg injury which he broke in pre-season testing in Spain. After a nasty coming together in morning warm up, his leg began to swell and he retired early in the first race because of the pain, but plucky Clarke managed to last out for a 19th position in race two.
The Irish circuit poses new challenges for the three Virgin Mobile Cup graduates, Tommy is looking to build on his good form so far this year, Billy has never been around the 2.3 mile track before and Kieran is hoping that his run of bad luck and injury has finally come to an end.
Team Manager Rob McElnea said: "The two weekend gap in the hectic schedule came at a welcome time, this gives the team time to rebuild not only the machines but team morale and enthusiasm, the intense start to the season and testing time in between asks a lot of all my team and I appreciate all the hard work they relentlessly put in, but now we are off again into a real busy time starting this weekend at Mondello Park in Southern Ireland.
Mondello should suit my guys and our bike, Tommy is gaining confidence every weekend and he knows he can run a good pace at this track we just need to keep him settled, with Billy this will be the first time he has seen this circuit so he is thrown in the deep-end, he has a great knack of settling down quickly so hopefully he will be on the pace, Kieran is starting to regain his confidence and I am sure we will see a strong result from him, if we can continue scoring Championship points with all three young riders I feel we are making great progress."
Catch Tommy, Billy and Kieran in action on ITV1 Sunday from 3pm. You can also watch the results from practice, qualifying and races come through live on their official team website, The link for this is below.
Related Linkswww.virginmobileracing.com
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