Gearlink Kawasaki News

Following on from the success at Brands Hatch, Alastair Seeley and Ben Wilson were involved in an action packed weekend in the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship at Thruxton. There were two races on the Sunday after the sprint race was cancelled the previous day due to heavy rain. Both riders had great results each achieving second and third places in both races.

In the tricky conditions over the weekend it was Alastair that qualified in third place on the grid with Ben only 0.4 sec. behind in fifth. The opening race was scheduled to be 10 laps with five riders battling for the lead in an extremely close race. The race was red flagged on lap six with Alastair taking second place just ahead of Ben in third.

The second race was scheduled for 18 laps but with concerns over tyre wear was cut to 15 laps. It was just as frantic as race one but once again another red flag saw the race cut to 13 laps. As in the first race the leaders were continually swapping places with some very close racing. This time it was Ben who finished in second place with Alastair a close third. 

Luke Hedger had another strong weekend in the Pirelli Superstock 600 class and was fighting for a podium place after a great qualifying position of sixth place on the grid. He finally finished in 10th place in the race having sufferred terrible arm pump from half way through the race.

Nicole Mc Aleer continues to improve having qualified but was forced to retire in the race with a technical issue.

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - " I am very happy with the two podiums in each race and it is great to be back at the front with Alastair and Ben both doing a fantastic job. We have struggled a little in the past at Thruxton so to get these results is brilliant. Being up there battling with the other teams is great and proved we can run with them on speed as we have put in a lot of hard work over the winter.

Luke is coming on in leaps and bounds in the Stock 600 class, his confidence is building, qualifying times are good and is making good progress quickly on a new bike.

We are pleased with Nicole's progress as she is improving her lap times with each outing on the bike.

Overall a great weekend and i am very pleased with all our riders."

The team had a fantastic start to the season with Alastair Seeley achieving a stunning third and first place and Ben Wilson securing fourth and third places in the two Motorpoint British Supersport races.

The extremely cold weather conditions on Friday's practice hindered progress with the team missing the first session. However,for the qualifying session on Saturday, Alastair and Ben qualified in creditable fourth and fifth places respectively. For the sprint race in the afternoon, after a re-start, both got off to an exciting start with Ben getting an awesome hole-shot and leading for the first three laps. It was a very close race seeing both swapping paint for third position with Alastair finally taking third place just in front of Ben.

Their fast times from race one put Alastair on pole and Ben in second position on the grid for race two. Into turn one Alastair was first with Ben closely behind in what turned out to be one of the most exciting British Supersport races in years with seven riders battling it out at one point. However, it was the two Gearlink Kawasaki's that were fighting for the win with Ben leading the race before going into Graham Hill Bend only to make a small mistake allowing Alastair to seize the opportunity and take the win with Ben finishing a close third with only 0.4 sec separating the first three.

Luke Hedger had a strong weekend gaining 13th place and good championship points in his first ever Pirelli National Superstock 600 race.

Nicole McAleer was unfortunte not to be allowed to race despite qualifying in 41st place as only 38 riders were allowed on the grid.

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "We came to Brands Hatch with no testing in dry conditions and Ben had a small technical problem during qualifying so it was great to see Alastair get a podium and Ben fourth. The second race was even better with a superb win and a third and a great achievement for the team who have worked really hard all winter.

Both Luke and Nicole are on a learning curve with Luke doing a great job in his first race on a 600 and Nicole worked hard all weekend improving her lap times every time she went on track."