Rob Mac Racing's Karl Harris turned a near disasterous weekend around for a season best, fifth place finish at Round six of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship today (June 29th).
Karl Harris qualified his Rob Mac Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 in 7th position on the second row giving himself every chance of the well deserved podium finish that has eluded him so far this season.
Harris was making consistent progress through the field before disaster struck on Lap 10 in Race one. Unbeknown to Karl, a stone had pierced his radiator causing a rapidly rising temperature gauge, leaving him no alternative than to retire his Yamaha into the pits, ending his crusade.
Race Two started in high drama. Changeable weather conditions had blighted earlier grids and the Superbikes were not to be left out. A downpour just before the grid was formed forced the team managers to make some tough tyre decisions. Rob Mac gambled with a full slick Pirelli tyre choice, banking on the weather clearing up as it had previously done.
With Harris doubtful of the task ahead the lights went out for what would be a few very brave laps from those on slicks. With the riders on wets maximising the opportunity of a wet but drying track, Karl made steady progress from 14th place to 10th. A third of the way in, the track was offering a dry strip' and the race was on for The Bomber'. By lap 13 he was in seventh place, with Tom Sykes in reaching distance. Karl closed on Sykes to within 0.5sec and looked poised to earn himself another scalp. With the wet tyre shod riders slipping down the order, the Sykes versus Harris race eleveated itself up to a respective fourth and fifth.
Although losing out a little to the additional grip that the front intermediate Sykes was running offered, Harris kept his head down and chased him all the way to the flag, missing out on fourth place by just 0.2sec.
Karl Harris: "After our disasterous luck in race one, I'm well happy with that. I'd be lying if I told you I was a happy guy on the grid, the weather conditions pushed a tyre decision that I was not confident with but all credit to Rob, it paid off. The bike felt fantastic and I didn't really have any scary moments, I knew I had to be a bit conservative in the opening laps till it was dry enough to go. I was catching Sykes all the time but he had an intermediate front and a bit more drive out the corners, it was close at the end, 0.2 secs. I'll take fifth and start my season in the second half at Oulton."
Rob McElena, Team Principal:"Hopefully this is the start of things to come, the second half of the year starts at Oulton. We had some bad luck earlier in race one, with a stone in the radiator, who could for-see that? Karl has been carrying the weight of the bad start to the year on his shoulders, but he didn't let the pressure bother him and just kept a level head and rode a very mature race. It paid off with our best result to date."
Race 1 Results:1) Byrne (Ducati)
2) Haslam (Honda)
3) Crutchlow (Honda)
4) Sykes (Suzuki)
5) Ellison (Honda)
6) McConnell (Kawasaki)
DNF) Karl Harris (Rob Mac Racing Yamaha)Race 2 Results:1) Rutter (Ducati)
2) Byrne (Ducati)
3) Crutchlow (Honda)
4) Sykes (Suzuki)
5) Karl Harris (Rob Mac Racing Yamaha)6) Haslam (Honda)
7) Andrews (Yamaha)
8) Camier (Ducati)
10) Palmer (Honda)
Championship Standings:1) Byrne - 280
2) Crutchlow - 183
3) Camier - 160
4) Haslam - 148
5) Rutter - 127
14) Karl Harris - 37
