After a good qualifying session whereby Chris Martin secured a front row and Steven Neate a second row start, the weather ensured that Mallory Park turned out to be a weekend to forget for Gearlink Kawasaki.
The team arrived at the Leicestershire circuit full of enthusiasm and anticipation and both Chris Martin and Steven Neate were confident they could pull off a good set of results for Gearlink Kawasaki.
Qualifying saw Chris circulating within the top four throughout the weekend and he recorded the fourth fastest time in the final session to secure a front row start to Sunday’s sixth round race in the Fuchs/Silkolene British Supersport championship.
Not to be outdone, Steven Neate put in a concerted effort to claim eighth place and a second row start right behind his teammate for the start of Sunday’s 28-lap encounter.
In the build up to the race there was an air of anticipation within the team as their thoughts turned to what the outcome might be. But just as the riders took their positions on the grid a heavy shower of rain halted the start procedure.
After a lengthy delay the teams were given just 10 minutes to change tyres and with little time to spare there was no choice but to run both riders on the intermediate tyres that were down at the start line in the race that was by now reduced to 24 laps.
After the warm-up lap Steven Neate opted to return to the pit garage for a swift change to full wets and set off from pit lane to try and play catch-up.
He chipped away at the riders some distance ahead and eventually caught and passed them until he reached 14th place on the final lap. But as he went to negotiate Edwina’s chicane the blue flag was waved at him warning of approaching riders about to pass him.
Realising he would affect the outcome of the race he opted to run down the escape road and let the front runners safely through on their way to the chequered flag.
Unfortunately this allowed the rider behind to overtake and demote Steven to 15th position where he remained until the finish line.
Meanwhile Chris Martin was on intermediate tyres and dropped like a stone through the field as he struggled to control the bike as it slid around in the wet conditions. After dropping back to 24th place he opted to retire into the pits on lap 12 of 24.
Steven Neate That was my best qualifying position of the season and a shame it ended up in nothing because of the situation with the tyres. My lap times showed that I was as quick as the rider who finished in sixth place so who knows where I would have ended up if this had not happened. It was unfortunate that I hit Edwina’s at the same time as the leaders and lost a place but that’s racing.
Michael de Bidaph - Team owner/managerThe weekend went well with qualifying and both riders did really well but today in the race, when it started to rain, we did not have soft wets on the grid and by the time we managed to get them there the officials would not give us the time to change them. Steven came in and started from pit lane on a wet rear and obviously did well while Chris stayed on an intermediate. That was our fault, not his and we all feel very gutted about it but there is nothing we can say about that except that we feel total disappointment.
