The rescheduled round of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport championship at Brands Hatch on Sunday brought differing results to the Gearlink Kawasaki team with Steven Neate completing the race in 13th place to secure three championship points while Chris Martin crashed out of fourth place in the incident packed event.
With qualifying set from the postponed event back in early April Chris began his race from row two while Steven was placed on row five.
As the race got underway Chris Martin rounded Paddock Hill in fifth place but his progress was halted when the pace car was deployed after a first corner crash involving three mid field riders.
Once the car left the circuit the race was back in full flow and Martin continued his battling for position with BJ Toal and Midge Smart and after taking fourth place he began to reel in Steve Brogan.
But his race came to a premature end at Surtees when the bike highsided and flung him off into the gravel.
Chris has some torn ligaments in his hip plus a broken toe and some heavy bruising to contend with but with a breathing space of two weeks before the next round hopes to be fit enough to ride a competitive race.
Despite a non-finish Chris maintains his fourth place in the rider points’ table and he will be eager to get his championship challenge back on course with a good result at Donington.
Meanwhile Steve Neate was continuing to make his way up the field. He was unable to progress while the safety car was on the circuit but once given the all clear he powered the Gearlink Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R through to complete his race in 13th place and after three rounds is placed at 11th overall.
Michael de Bidaph – Team Owner/ Manager
All in all it’s not been a great weekend for us. We have struggled throughout with overheating problems and set up but we could have had a strong race today. Chris was running up there but I think was maybe trying a little bit too hard at that part of the circuit and it was unfortunate that he crashed. I am happy with Steve who pulled back up to 13th; he had a good race and recorded the fifth fastest lap so we are really pleased with his performance. We must now pick ourselves up, move on to Donington and look for a good set of results from there
Chris Martin
I am a bit disappointed as I was just getting on terms with Steve Brogan who was running in third place. I would have caught him and was looking at a podium finish. I have no idea as to the cause of the crash; I had exited the corner ok when it suddenly let go. I have some torn ligaments in my hip and a broken toe plus some bruises but other than that I am fine.
Steven Neate That was a pretty interesting race with the safety car out twice on the track, which made the race a little disjointed. We have been quick all weekend and during the race I got the fifth fastest lap but of course coming from that far back on the grid in 18th it was always going to be a struggle. But we came away with 13th place and three more championship points so am quite pleased really.
