The stars of the Henderson Yamaha R1 Cup will receive the opportunity to showcase their skills on the world stage as they battle it out over two races at the British MotoGP this weekend (20th-21th June).
Billed as the International Round, the double header will be a stand alone event with no championship points up for grabs. Instead, it will proffer the Henderson Yamaha R1 Cup riders the chance to revel in the atmosphere as part of the largest motorcycling race weekend on the calendar in the UK this year.
Jon Kirkham will line up in pole position as the pre-race favourite after dominating the recent Henderson Yamaha R1 Cup double header that took place at Donington Park over the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend (25th-26th May).
Ben Wilson, taking second place honours in both races, pushed Kirkham throughout the opening laps, receiving plenty of opportunity to formulate a game plan as to how Kirkham can be beaten at his home track. An Adrian Coates (Stoneyford Concrete) third place double completed mirror podiums at the end of May at Donington Park, but these three will have their work cut out with the current form of Sam Warren (Mission Racing) and Jack Kennedy (JK Racing). The duo pushed their respective Yamaha YZF-R1s to the limit at a wet Snetterton last Sunday, claiming the final two podium positions from the unfortunate Marty Nutt (Nutttravel/T+G) on the final corner.
Snetterton race winner, Richard Cooper, will be replaced for the International Round by Co-ordit Racing team boss, Pete Bradshaw to allow him his moment of glory. Pete will face the tough task of starting from the fifth row of the grid, as this will be his first appearance of the season in the Henderson Yamaha R1 Cup. Pete will hand back the Co-ordit reins to Cooper after Mallory Park.
Neal Garside, on the Buckingham Group Yamaha R1, will be riding with renewed confidence after scoring his first points of the season at Snetterton last weekend. The 2007 Derby Phoenix Novice Club champion has made the leap into the competitive arena of BSB and will take the next step by competing in front of his all-time hero, Valentino Rossi, at Donington this weekend.
However, it will be unwise to discount Sean Emmett. The veteran GP and Superbike rider will relish the opportunity to rise to the occasion on the world stage once again this Saturday and could prove a real race winning prospect.
Three new riders will take the opportunity of the International Round to test their mettle against the rest of the Henderson Yamaha R1 Cup field Tom Luton, Tony Rainford and Jim Hodgson will plunge in at the deep end, lining up at the back of the grid, and will look to make their mark in the opening race to gain good start positions for the second.
The two races will no doubt throw up some surprise results. So far in five races this season, there have been three winners and seven different riders standing on the podium. With unsettled weather conditions forecast for Saturday, the scene is set and the ingredients are all in place for what promises to be 20 laps of breath-taking Henderson Yamaha R1 Cup race action. The result of the opening race will determine the grid for the second.
The single 25 minute Free Practice session takes place on Friday evening at 18.40. The race action gets underway with the first of two 10 lappers at 17.30. The riders will get a short period to recover before taking to the grid once again at 19.10.
The grid for Race 1 will line up as follows:Row 1: Kirkham, 2. B.Wilson, 3. Coates, 4. Mason
Row 2: 5. Emmett, 6. Warren, 7. J.Kennedy, 8. Nutt
Row 3: 9. Etheridge, 10. Bishop, 11. S.Wilson, 12. Neeves
Row 4: 13. Kentish, 14. Garside, 15. Cusick, 16 R.Kennedy
Row 5: 17. Shoesmith, 18. Bradshaw, 19. Luton, 20. Rainford
Row 6: 21. Hodgson
Rob McElnea, Team Principal: "This weekend will be an amazing experience for all of us. An invitation to race in the tyre tracks of the Moto GP legends, in front of a record planned crowd, should be huge buzz, Joe Henderson has been looking forward to bringing his Cup along to this event, Joe has been a personal sponsor with JT for many years and to see James at the top level and have his Cup on show will be a great weekend for him. We are all excited to show off our series, the lads have had a tough time all year with tricky conditions in virtually every race this year at BSB, hopefully we will get good conditions and be able to put a great show on and promote the series and the riders in front of the motorcycle racing hierarchy and the biggest crowd we will have seen!"
