Centurion Racing were unable to race in the first round of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport series this weekend at Brands Hatch after horrendous snow fall put a stop to all track activity. The organisers of the British Superbike series MSVR had to make the tough but correct decision to cancel the meeting at Brands but have managed to reschedule it for May 10th and 11th.
The bikes in the garageThe three riders Dennis Hobbs, James Westmoreland and Dan Cooper will keep the qualifying positions they gained this weekend of 7th, 13th and 21st place respectively. The trio of riders had many challenges over the weekend and with little testing over the winter they were frantically trying new components throughout practice and qualifying.
Previous British Supersport race winner Hobbs commented "I was hoping to get out racing this weekend but when I saw how heavy the snow was on Sunday I knew it wouldn't be possible. This gives us a couple more weeks to prepare for Thruxton and hopefully by the time we come back to Brands in May we will know which direction we are going with everything. I just want to get myself into race mode now."
Westy stated "I think the organisers had a difficult decision to make to please everyone but under the circumstances it was definitely the safest one for all of us. I'm still getting used to the new Pirelli tyres and how to alter my riding style accordingly. We made some big steps forward this weekend and hopefully that will continue to improve as the season progresses."
Cooper said "I've been eager to get back racing all winter and it's a shame it was called off but this does give us a little more time to prepare for Thruxton, now we've been out on track we have a better idea on what needs to be changed on the bike. I was pretty happy with the way I was riding this weekend and at one point I was up to 10th but slipped backwards. The team have worked really hard and when we come back here in May we'll be ready for it."
Team Manager Gary Stubbington commented "The organisers definitely made the right decision and leaving as long as they did was a good idea as there was a possibility that it could have cleared up. For Stuart Higgs and Jonathan Palmer to re-organise the event in such a short period of time was fantastic and credit must go to them as it wasn't an easy decision to make I'm sure. On the team front we are very happy how we started and the team worked very hard but extremely well together. It's been a long lay-off over the winter for the boys and they brought it all together throughout the weekend and hopefully things will continue to improve as the season progresses."
