Gearlink Kawasaki News

The fourth round of the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship was held this weekend at Donnington Park in front of a big World Superbike crowd. Luke Hedger took a fantastic second place and the new recruit on the team after the departure of Nicole Mc Aleer was young Australian Mark Wilkinson, he had a great debut ride finishing in eighth place.

Both riders had good qualifying sessions despite the previous days practice sessions being almost a wash out. Luke qualified in fourth and Mark 14th.

In the race Luke was soon out in front with a healthy 3.8 sec lead but unfortunately the safety car was deployed which bunched the riders together. The car pulled in with just two laps to go and Luke was unlucky to just miss out on the win but still finished on the podium in a great second place.

Having secured his best qualifying in the Superstock 600 class Mark continued his strong form over the weekend moving up through the field in the closing laps to finish in a fantastic eighth place.

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - " I am really pleased with the results this weekend, both Luke and Mark did a fantastic job for the team. Luke rode an extremely mature race and despite lack of track time set some really good times in the race. We are really pleased with his progress so far and we're very sure there is more to come from him.

We are extremely pleased to welcome Mark Wilkinson to the team, Nicole withdrew her ride from the team about a week and a half ago and Mark called early last week to enquire about riding for us. We had a very brief test at Brands Hatch so his first real time out on the bike was during the second qualifying. He has really adapted to the bike and to finish 8th is brilliant in his first ride for us."

Alastair Seeley rode a fantastic opening Supersport race to win by just 1.3 seconds after a huge effort on the final lap of the 8.9 mile Triangle course.

It was a great performance in extremely difficult conditions after heavy rain had fallen just before the evening's race. This was Alastair's tenth win at the North West 200 and puts him into fifth position on the all time winners league.

Unfortunately the second race was stopped after just two laps following minor accidents in the treacherous wet conditions with Alastair placed in fourth position. The remaining race programme was cancelled because of the heavy rain.

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "I would like to say a huge well done to Alastair for taking his tenth win on the Gearlink Kawasaki. He rode a great opening race despite a technical problem forcing him to miss the majority of qualifying and he had to start with the second wave of riders but still took a great win. It was very sad for all the organisers involved that they had to cancel the rest of the meeting due to the horrendous weather conditions".

It was another action packed weekend for the team at Oulton Park. Alastair Seeley had a stunning weekend securing a great second place in race one and followed it with a fantastic win in race two. Ben Wilson was unable to start race one but finished in a great seventh place in race two despite starting from the back of the grid. Luke Hedger achieved his best result this year finishing in a fantastic second place.

Alastair now leads the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship and was certainly on a mission having qualified in second place and then finishing in second place just 0.1 second behind the winner in what was a closely fought opening race. For the second race he started in pole position and just edged out the second place man for a stunning win.

For Ben it was a different situation as he crashed during the qualifying session resulting in the mechanics having a long job to fix the wiring loom. Unfortunately, time was against them and Ben was unable to start race one and was forced to start race two from the back of the grid. He had a great start and by lap two had moved up to 11th place finally settling for a hard fought seventh place.

In the Pirelli National Superstock 600 class it was another great result for the team with Luke finishing in a fantastic second place having started from 10th place on the grid.

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "It was a contrasting weekend of highs and lows. Alastair did an amazing job for the team having been on the pace all weekend. For Ben it was a nightmare weekend. We made a change to the suspension for qualifying and unfortunately he crashed. We were then on the back foot trying to fix it but it was not to be. He did a brilliant job to get to seventh place from the back of the grid but he was not 100% happy with the bike.   

Luke rode a fantastic race and to be on the podium in only his third 600 race is brilliant. He rode a clever and intelligent race thoroughly deserving his podium.  

Nicole is struggling to find a comfortable set up but she is continuing to move forwards on a bike which is very different to anything she has ridden before"