Gearlink Kawasaki News

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"