Gearlink Kawasaki News

Alastair Seeley was in tremendous form at the Vauxhall International North West 200 producing the fastest times throughout practice and qualifying in the Supersport class. He dominated the class to put our Kawasaki ZX-6R in pole position for the first race.

He got off to a flying start but unfortunately was forced to retire during  the race with a fuel contamination problem.

For the second race he again led the pack and was in a battle with 5 other riders with the lead constantly changing but Alastair was always at or near the front. As the race progressed the conditions became tricky with drizzle affecting certain parts of the course. Alastair managed the conditions brilliantly and started to pull away and gained a lead of nearly 4 seconds to achieve a fantastic record breaking nineteenth win at the NW200.

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "Alastair was superb throughout the meeting and it was disappointing that we suffered a fuel contamination problem in the first race. Such was Alastair's form that i am sure that he would have got the win. He rode exceptionally well in the second race in very difficult conditions and well deserved the win."

It was a mixed weekend for the team in the Dickies British Supersport Championship at Oulton Park, Ben Currie secured solid sixth and fifth places and Andrew Irwin gained a fantastic second place and an 11th. 

Andrew worked hard during the practice and qualifying sessions to find a suitable set-up with his times improving in each session managing to qualify in third position on the grid for race one.

He got a flying start and soon went into the lead on the first lap. Throughout the race he was locked in a battle for a podium place and potentially a win when the race was red-flagged and a result was called with Andrew securing another brilliant second place.

For race two he was placed in second place on the grid and again got a good start and was soon locked in a battle for another podium finish when on lap seven he started to slow down. He managed to nurse the bike home in a creditable 11th place to score some valuable Championship points and now sits in fourth place in the Championship standings.

Ben also had a strong weekend and after some adjustments in the practice sessions his times were also improving. He qualified in seventh place for race one, got a great start and at one point was in a podium position and then become locked in a battle for fourth place before finally finishing in sixth place when the red flag came out.

He started from fifth place on the grid for race two and soon moved up to fourth place but dropped back three places before fighting back to finish in a solid fifth place. With his extremely consistent results so far this season, he is now lying in third place in the Championship standings.

In the MCE British Superbike Championship James Westmoreland worked hard all weekend to continuously improve his lap times. He pushed hard in qualifying with his best lap time of the weekend and just missed out on getting through to Q2. For race one he started from 20th on the grid and finished in the same position. For race two he started from 22nd and finished just outside the points in 17th. 

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "We struggled during the Supersport practice sessions but after some hard work with Ben and Andrew qualified really well.

The first race was good with Andrew again showing he can run up the front and if the race had not been cut short it would have been interesting to see if he could have challenged the leader. Despite Ben having a tough weekend he rode well with another consistent race to finish sixth.

In race two our bad luck seems to continue for us and Andrew struggled with a technical problem but he was still able to salvage some points. Ben had another good ride and proved his consistency to remain third in the Championship which i am really pleased about.

James once again on the Superbike worked exceptionally well with the team to make progress in every session. Together we are making small steps and hope that the results will come for him soon. 

We now head off for the North West 200 with Alastair Seeley who will be riding our Supersport bike there."