From a press release issued by Vitrans Honda:

VITRANS SENSES SNETTERTON IMPROVEMENT

Vitrans Honda rider, Craig Coxhell, finished in 13th place in the second race of yesterday’s British Superbike championship third round at Snetterton in Norfolk but declared himself happy with the team’s early season progress.

Coxhell had earlier crashed out of race one having started from 12th place on the grid but the Aussie feels that his team is beginning to understand the all new CBR1000RR Fireblade better with each race.

“We’re developing the bike each time we go out,” said Coxhell, “but Snetterton is a completely different track to Brands Hatch, so we had to start again with a blank piece of paper. The crash with Steve Plater in race one was just a racing thing so I was pleased to get some more points in race two.”

Vitrans Honda’s two new Supersport riders for Snetterton, Iain MacPherson and American Nicky Moore, enjoyed mixed fortunes; MacPherson crashing out of the lead on lap 18 and Moore taking eleventh place on his European debut.

MacPherson was disappointed not to finish in his first outing for the team but was impressed by the Vitrans CBR600RR, saying: “That’s a quick bike, for sure. I was pretty comfortable in the lead before I crashed but when the back stepped out I just lost the front trying to correct it.”

Moore, who contested his first AMA Supersport race in the US earlier this month, flew in from California just days before Snetterton and rode the bike for the first time in Friday morning practice. The 17-year-old impressed many with a steady, points-scoring ride.

“I’m real happy with that,” he said afterwards. “I struggled a bit with set-up during qualifying but we made some changes during warm-up and that improved things. There’s definitely a different racing style to AMA and it’s real fast here, too!”

Vitrans Honda’s regular British Supersport and Superstock rider, Paul Young, was helping the squad at Snetterton as he recovers from the fractured arm sustained at Brands Hatch. While Young hopes to recover in time for round five at Mondello Park in Ireland on 23 May, the Vitrans team moves on to Oulton Park for round four of the championship which takes place next Monday 3rd May.


British Supersport championship

Result: 1 M. Laverty (Ducati) 23:14.750, 2 K. Harris (Honda) -0.537, 3 P. Riba (Kawasaki) -0.578, 4 L. Quigley (Suzuki) -1.813, 5 S. Andrews (Yamaha) -2.091, 6 J. Vincent (Honda) -2.259, 7 T. Sykes (Suzuki) -7.651, 8 A. Coates (Suzuki) -8.394, 9 C. Jones (Triumph) -8.684, 10 M. Llewellyn (Ducati) -14.619, 11 N Moore (Vitrans Honda).

Points after round three: 1 Laverty 51, 2 Harris 45, 3 Vincent 43, 4 Riba 42, 5 Quigley 38, 6 Jones, Andrews 27, 8 Murphy 19, 9= Coates, Sykes 15.