Gearlink Kawasaki News

28 October 2019

Double Podium at Brands Hatch Season Finale

The final rouund of the Dickies British Supersport Championship took place at the Brands Hatch GP circuit. The team were keen to finish the season on a high and James Westmoreland gained two hard fought third places. Ben Wilson also worked extremely hard to secure two 10th Supersport places.

Again the weather played a huge part in the opening sessions of the weekend with it being slightly wet and extremely cold. James showed his worth throughout all the practice and qualifying sessions topping the time sheets in second practice. He eventually qualified in second place for race one.
He got a good start and held his position at the end of the opening lap. Whilst Jack Kennedy made a break at the front there was a pack of riders fighting it out for the two remaing podium positions with positions changing every lap. Westy fought hard making some strong passes and was in third place when the race was red flagged on the penultimate lap.
For race two he started from third place on the grid and moved to second after the opening lap. He then dropped back to fourth but pushed hard setting some good consistent lap times to finish in a very strong third place. Considering he only completed four rounds he managed to finish in a very creditable 11th place in the Championship.
Ben once again worked hard and despite still recovering from his broken leg managed to qualify in 14th place for race one to finish 10th Supersport rider and achieved the same result for race two.
Team Owner - Michael de Bidaph - " James did extremely well to secure two podium places especially as both our practice sessions were wet which we meant we had no dry set-up data, unlike the other teams who had already been to Brands earlier in the season.
Ben's run of bad luck continued with problems in both races but i know he has surprised a lot of people with how well he has done since coming back from a terrible injury.
I would like to thank all of our product sponsors who once again supported us this year and also Stuart Higgs for helping us to sort the problems out that we experienced earlier in the season with the 636."

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posted by The Team at 11:52

14 October 2019

A Podium at Donington Park

The penultimate round of the Dickies British Supersport Championship took place at Donington Park. The team welcomed back James Westmoreland who secured a podium in the first race and was a close fourth in race two. Ben Wilson is still recovering from injury and gained a strong ninth place in race one and 10th in race two.

James had to miss Assen due to other racing commitments but made a welcome return to Donington. He ran well throughout the practice and qualifying sessions to start race one from sixth position on the grid. He got a great start and was soon in a podium place keeping his head down to secure a fantastic third position. 

In race two he started from fifth place and got another great start moving to third place by the end of the first lap. He was soon locked in a close battle with two other riders. Westy just avoided one of the other riders who crasheded towards the end of the race which lost him some momentum and was just 0.3 sec behind the third placed rider to gain a hard fought fourth place. 

Ben, still recovering from his badly broken leg at Thruxton nevertheless worked hard throughout the weekend putting in some strong times. He started race one from 14th place and pushed hard to finish ninth. For race two he was again placed 14th on the grid and finished in 10th.

Team Owner - Michael de Bidaph -"James had another strong weekend despite only really having one practice session as the first one was wet and not ideal for getting the correct gearing, so we were into qualirfying before we could get it right.

Whilst he was unfortunate not to get another podium in race two it's so good to be consistently at the front again.

Ben had a technical problem in race one so it was good for him to still pick up points and his coming together with another rider in race two cost him another strong finish."

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posted by The Team at 15:56

1 October 2019

Points at Assen

Round 10 of the Dickies British Supersport Championship took place at the fantastic TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands. The team was running Dutch rider Rob Hartog and making a welcome return after breaking his leg at Thruxton was Ben Wilson. Rob secured a strong ninth in race one and sadly was taken out of a strong position in race two. Ben struggled through the pain to finish 14th in race one and a creditable 10th place in race two.

Rob had never been on the bike before practice sessions started and made some really good improvements throughout the weekend which saw him qualify in 11th for race one. He got a good start and was making good progress through the field. He eventually moved up to sixth in the Supersport category but was handed a  penalty after the race of three seconds dropping him back to ninth. 

For race two he again started from 11th and after another good start saw him move up through the pack. He was working hard and was sat at the back of the group fighting for fifth place. He was sitting comfortably in eighth place but was sadly taken out by another rider.

Ben suffered a badly broken lower leg at Thruxton and made a welcome return to the team. Despite the pain and a crash he worked hard to achieve the results he got. He started race one in 27th place to finish in a hard fought 14th.

For race two he started from 23rd on the grid and got one of his fantastic starts to move through to 15th. He continued to work hard battling through the pain to finish in a very creditable 10th position.

Team Owner Michael de Bidaph - "We made a lot of progress with Rob over the weekend considering that he had not ridden our bike before.

I think his result in race one was good especially as we weren't where we needed to be with the set-up. We made another change in warm up and Rob was faster then he had been all weekend so it was really unfortunate that he came off in the second race.

It was a pleasure working with Rob at Assen and also good for his home fans to have him on our bike.

Ben had a really tough weekend coming back for the first time after his injury at Thruxton. His results in the races may seem disappointing but he still managed to score points"

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posted by The Team at 15:28

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