The Isilon MSS Discovery Kawasaki team suffered another weekend of highs and lows at the final Bennetts British Superbike meeting of 2007.
Michael Rutter took the Ninja ZX-10R to 8th and 10th place finishes in the two Superbike legs, battling hard with the Rizla Suzukis and the Stobart Hondas in the early stages of the races. James Webb’s warm-up crash meant he didn’t have his number one engine for his MAXXIS British Supersport event and a high-side in front of him during the race meant he had to settle for 13th place and his first points finish for the team.
Michael Rutter, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R (8th and 10th - Final championship position 12th - Stuart Easton 28th)
“Today was pretty positive on the Superbike I think. We’ve learnt a bit more about the Kawasaki over the last couple of meetings and made a few steps forward which have translated to better overall performance over a full race distance. The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R has its good and bad points like any race bike, but we’ve improved gradually over the course of what’s been a difficult first season in the British Superbike class for the team. Today though I felt like we weren’t a million miles off the quick boys and I felt like we were actually able to race some of them for the first time this year.”
James Webb, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R (13th - Final championship position 31st - Stuart Easton 10th)
“Utterly disappointed is how I’m feeling right now. To crash during warm-up effectively ruined my race as the number one engine was damaged so I had to use the slightly lower-spec one. The race wasn’t exactly incident-free for me, but I guess at least I got a finish and some points but it goes without saying this isn’t the result I wanted.”
Jack Valentine, Race Team Manager
“We all had high hopes for James but I think the pressure just got to him a little bit this morning and he went down in warm-up, which damaged his best engine so the one he had to use for the race didn’t quite have the mid-range. He got a good start in the race, but then Paul Young high-sided in front of him and that left him in no-man’s land. The important point to make is that he finished and got some points this time. With Michael and the Superbike again it was a shame we couldn’t use his number one chassis as we couldn’t get the second chassis set up quite as well. He was still quite confident on the bike and had two great starts he also out-braked a few people around Druids, which was good to see. In the second race he was knocked back a bit during a battle with Steve Plater, Scott Smart and James Haydon and lost out on 9th by a few hundredths of a second.”
Nick Morgan, Team owner
“It’s been one of those rollercoasters of a weekend for us. Everything was going well for James in Supersport practice, but yesterday’s crash in qualifying knocked the stuffing out of him a little bit and then he crashed again in morning warm-up. This damaged his number one machine so he had to use the slightly older-spec motor, which hasn’t got the mid-range of the number one engine. This and Paul Young’s big high-side meant he was left down in 13th at the flag – but that’s some points and a finish, even if it’s not the result he or the team wanted. With Michael he worked hard in race one and got a good start to be nearer to the leaders than probably ever before and 8th was a pretty good result. In race two we would have liked more of the same but it was not to be.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship
Race One
1. Gregorio Lavilla
2. Jonathan Rea
3. Ryuichi Kiyonari
4. Leon Haslam
5. Cal Crutchlow
8. Michael Rutter, ISILON MSS Discovery Kawasaki
Race Two
1. Gregorio Lavilla
2. Jonathan Rea
3. Cal Crutchlow
4. Ryuicihi Kiyonari
5. Leon Haslam
10. Michael Rutter, ISILON MSS Discovery Kawasaki
MAXXIS British Supersport Championship
1. Billy McConnell
2. Dennis Hobbs
3. Michael Laverty
4. Tom Grant
5. Steve Brogan
13. James Webb, ISILON MSS Discovery Kawasaki
