Gearlink Kawasaki News

With James Westmoreland having to miss Assen due to other racing committments we are pleased to announce that we will be running former Dutch and European Champion Rob Hartog at round ten of the Dickies British Supersport series. Having purchased former Gearlink machines in the past Rob is very familiar with the team and also the fantastic Assen circuit.

Rob Hartog - "First of all i would like to thank the Gearlink Kawasaki team for giving me this opportunity. I am looking forward to working with them and riding at my home circuit. The BSB event is very popular in the Netherlands, so going to work with such an experienced team hopefully will lead to a good result. Also i would like to thank Rob Vennegor for aranging this contact."

Team Owner Michael de Bidaph - "Knowing how passionate the Dutch are about motorbike racing it will good to have Rob riding one of our Supersport bikes at Assen.

Rob bought one of our bikes a few years ago and i have noticed how he has progressed with his racing career since then. I am sure he will enjoy riding for the team over the Assen weekend."

It was another really strong weekend for the team at round nine of the Dickies Britisih Supersport Championship at Oulton Park. James Westmoreland had another positive weekend with a fourth and a fantastic podium with a second. Fraser Rogers filled in for Ben Wilson, who is still recovering from injury, with a 11th and a great eighth place in the Supersport class.

Despite Westy struggling to find a comfortable set-up he was still achieving some good  times throughout the weekend. He was placed ninth on the grid for race one and was keen to make up positions. He was seventh after the opening lap but soon worked his way through the pack to finish in a very healthy fourth.

For race two he started from eighth on the grid and again keen to make up places pushed his way through the field. Two of the leading contenders crashed out and he saw the opportunity to be on the podium. He wasn't quite able to push for the win but gained another great podium to finish second in the Supersport class. 

Ben Wilson was declared unfit to ride so Michael gave the call to Fraser to replace him. Fraser had not ridden a 600 for five years and despite a couple of issues during practice he still managed to qualify in 16th place for race one. He made good progress working his way up to finish in a creditable 11th place.

He started race two from 13th on the grid, sat behind Westy and was again making good progress when a small mistake forced him to run wide and onto the grass. He got his head down and put in some good lap times to fiinish in a great eight place.

Team Manager - Michael de Bidaph - "Once again James has done the team proud with his fourth in race one and second in race two. We didn't make many changes to the bike from Cadwell but i don't think we found the right set-up that James was really comfortable with but having said that i am really pleased how well James has done in just two rounds. especially as he hasn't been to Oulton Park for over a year whereas most of the Supersport grid were there earlier this year.

We asked Fraser at the last minute to stand in for Ben once we realised that he wasn't going to be passed fit to ride and i think considering the little time he had on the bike he did a really good job for the team finishing in the points in both races." 

We only had new recruit James Westmoreland representing the team in the Dickies British Supersport Championship round at Cadwell Park. Ben Wilson is still recovering after breaking his leg at Thruxton. Westy had a strong weekend with a confident fifth in race one and gaining the first podiun of the year for the team wiith a fantastic third place in race two.

As soon as Westy jumped on the bike in the practice sessions he instantly went well adapting quickly to the Supersport machine. He was in good form in both the wet and dry sessions and ended up qualifying in tenth place for the opening race. He got a great start catching the pack in front by 0.3s per lap getting up to fifth place at the finish.

He was placed seventh on the grid for race two and got a great start moving up to fifth after the opening lap. He was eager to get a podium and fended off a chasing pack of six bikes for the final podium position. He worked really hard and rode a strong confident race to bring home the team 's forst rostrum of the season with a brilliant third.

Fraser Rogers had a tough weekend in the Bennetts British Superbike class trying to find a set-up for the technical Cadwell Park circuit and is hopefull that it will be more positive at the next round.

Team Manager - Michael de Bidaph - "Having had such a difficult season up to now I felt that with James back on board we could start to turn things around but I never thought for one moment that i would be leaving Cadwell with a fifth and a third place in the Supersport class.

Right from the first practice session James just plugged away with very little change from his Cadwell settings of last year and then went on to produce two brilliant race results which gave the whole team a massive lift.

We look forward to working with James for the remainder of the season but unfortunately due to other committments he is unable to be at Assen. 

Fraser struggled all weekend on the Superbike to find a set-up that suited him, so we have to find out what went wrong before we get to Oulton Park"