Gearlink Kawasaki News

It was a mixed weekend for the team in the MCE British Superbike Championship with Ben Wilson finishing in 17th and 15th place respectively in the two superbike races. In the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship, Glenn Irwin gained two seventh places respectively with Luke Hedger finishing both races in 10th place. 

During the Superbike practice and qualifying sessions Ben struggled with set up and as at earlier meetings having no previous data is proving to be a challenge for the team. Unfortunately there was an issue with the shock just before race one and a mis-fire occurred during race two.

Although only qualifying in 25th place Ben got a fantastic start finally to secure 17th place moving him up the grid for race two to 17th place. After several delays caused by an accident and changing weather conditions race two finally got underway with Ben having a good start before the mis-fire occurred with him having to settle for 15th place. 

For the Supersport races Glenn Irwin, now almost recovered from his ankle injury, put in some strong lap times at a track that he has struggled with riding faster than he has in the past. A positive weekend for him with solid points gained.

It was good to see the return of Luke Hedger back on track after his lay-of because of injury. He rode well in both races to gain more points for his Championship.

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "It was another difficult weekend for us in the Superbike class with Ben and really hoped our luck might take a turn for the better. It has been a struggle from start to finish wirth set-up problems. We found a problem with the rear shock just before race one. Once this was sorted Ben's lap times really improved raising him higher on the grid for race two only to suffer with a mis-fire. We thought with the rain it might help Ben but this small problem cost us several places.

It was a good weekend for the Supersport riders this weekend and both have done really well. Glenn was racing at a circuit he does not feel confident on securing two very solid results and achieving some good race times. Luke was a welcome return and to come back and get two strong results from such a long injury was great and we are looking to move them forward at Thruxton"

It was a challenging weekend for the team at Knockhill. Ben Wilson, in the MCE British Superbike Championship, had a number of issues trying to find the correct set up during the practice and qualifying sessions. This unfortunately placed him in 22nd place on the grid, however, improvements were made and he had a great start working his way up to 11th place but a clutch problem meant that he could only finish in 16th place. Because of a good lap time set in race one he started race two from tenth place on the grid but the same problem with the clutch forced him to abort the race on lap three despite the mechanics working hard between races to solve the problem. 

In the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship Glenn Irwin while still recovering from injuries had a solid weekend with tenth place in race one and a strong sixth place in race two. He worked hard all weekend and is now in fifth place in the championship.

Luke Hedger will be back for the next race at Brands Hatch after sustaining a broken radius and ulnar testing at Mallory Park.

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "I'm a little disappointed as a team that Ben had the clutch problem he did as i feel that we have let him down. We really struggled to get a good set up in practice and qualifying but in warm-up we made some big changes and it really boosted Ben's confidence and he was really looking forward to the race. He got an amazing start getting through to 11th place and i really beleive he could have moved further up had he not had the clutch problem.

We thought we had fixed the problem for race two but realised when he tried to leave the grid there was a major problem.

Glenn worked hard again all weekend and it was difficult in race one with his qualifying position as it left him a lot of work to do. He made some mistakes but was still able to secure tenth place. Everything is right and he is working well with the team. Glenn has been consistent and rides very well.

It will be really good to get Luke and his family back at Brands, we have missed them all and it will be great to get Luke back on the track."