Both AIM Yamaha riders brought points back from their respective races at Thruxton on Sunday with Sean Emmett scoring 11th in the first Superbike race and Ian Hutchinson a strong eighth place in the Supersport event.
Standing in for the absent Steve Plater who was competing in the Le Mans 24-hour race, Emmett took the AIM Yamaha R1 to 10th position in qualifying and started the two British Superbike races at Thruxton from a third row grid position.
After dropping back to 13th in the opening laps Emmett began to make headway and completed the 20-lap affair in 11th place.
In race two however he was lying 11th when the race was red flagged and at the restart, scheduled for a 15-lap dash to the flag, Emmett completed just three laps before returning to the pit garage after encountering a problem with the bike.
Ian Hutchinson was making his debut in the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport championship for AIM Yamaha and powered the R6 through to sixth place in qualifying to claim a second row start to the 18-lap race.
The race was disrupted with the safety car being deployed for three laps and once proceedings got underway once again, Hutchinson continued his battle with Marty Nutt who beat him to the finish line by just over half a second leaving Hutchy to claim eighth place and pick up eight championship points.
Alistair Flanagan - Team PrincipalHutchy was 6/10ths of a second behind the guy in front when the pace car went in and he really should have been up to fourth or fifth at the finish. But this is the first time the bike has really been ridden in anger in the dry and he had a massive problem with the launch control at the start and ended up dropping from sixth to 15th on the first lap before fighting his way back. The bike is fast enough but we just have a few teething issues at the moment.
We are not really sure what the problem is with the Superbike, maybe something to do with tyres or the traction control as Sean said he had absolutely no grip.
Sean Emmett
I seemed to lose power in that second race. It felt as if it was revving slow and bikes were going past me on the straight even though I was at full throttle. Despite this set back we have made a lot of progress with the bike throughout the weekend and I really enjoyed the first race on it. But no one likes to not finish a race, especially as the guys have worked so hard over the last few days.
Picture Credit - Turn One Photography
