Gearlink Kawasaki made their debut on the world stage at Brands Hatch on Sunday, but things didn’t quite go their way and Chris Martin Forced to Retire ZX-6R After 11 Laps of WSS
Qualifying went well in the early stages but as the pace hotted up in the final session the World Supersport regulars came into their own and Chris was dropped down the order to complete his qualifying in 21st position. But on saying that he did have the honour of being the fastest Kawasaki on the grid and qualified ahead of the two regular series contenders which is a result in itself.
The race began well for Chris who moved through to take up 16th place on the first lap. But as the race progressed he began to lose ground. When rain forced officials to red flag the race he was down in 19th position and at the restart he went out on the spare bike after complaining of a lack of power.
He set off from 17th position and although moved up a place on the second lap he gradually fell back and eventually pulled in to retire.
Chris Martin"It has been a disastrous race all round really. We had a couple of problems with both bikes so that was it really, we pulled out and didn’t finish."
"I got a good start and pulled through up into the top 15 but then the bike just got slower and slower. Then I went out on the spare bike at the restart and that did exactly the same, it just didn’t have the go in it so I pulled in."
Michael de Bidaph – Team Owner/Manager"It’s a sad end to the weekend and it has gone a little bit downhill over the last qualifying session and especially the race today."
"In the first part of the race Chris appeared to have a problem with the bike so for the restart we put him out on the spare and he had a problem with that one. We don’t know why; we need to dyno both bikes and look into the problem in more depth so I can’t at this stage really comment on what went wrong."
"The ironic thing is that if only Chris had been able to complete the race he would have been the top Kawasaki finisher as the other two riders crashed."
"I am not in the best of spirits after seeing poor Craig Jones crash in that way. All the team at Gearlink Kawasaki extend their deepest sympathy to the Jones family, friends and team."
