FFX YAMAHA CELEBRATE FIRST VICTORY OF THE SEASON AT OULTON PARK
The FFX Yamaha team celebrated their first win of the 2014 season at the second round of the Championship at Oulton Park with Andy Reid as he scored a debut victory in the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship by nearly five seconds.
Reid had been pushing throughout the weekend to adapt to the Cheshire circuit onboard the 600cc machine, but the combined determination from the Northern Irishman and the FFX Yamaha squad saw him win in commanding style. The victory puts him within striking distance now of the championship lead after the opening two races with just a three point deficit to close at the next round of the season when the team feature at the Superbike World Championship event at Donington Park.
In the MCE British Superbike Championship Ian Hutchinson returned to Oulton Park and continued to work hard with the team to make progress throughout the weekend. The multiple TT race winner’s momentum was hampered by two crashes during the event but despite that he was able to claim his best result of the season with a 16th place.
Hutchinson said: “The weekend was a bit frustrating for me really because I feel like I am a session down on everyone else where I am going to the circuits for the first time in a few years; Oulton Park for example I haven’t ridden in four years but we are moving forward. The times are there and improving all the time, which is the most important thing to me, but where we qualified, made it difficult in the race. In race one I had to try and avoid the crash on the first lap and that dropped me down the order and having to make the time back up and then in race two I made a mistake and went across the grass which lost me time. We are getting very close to making the next step forward though so we are looking forward to the next round.”
Reid said: “That was the first time I had raced at Oulton Park on a 600 and it took until second qualifying to get the gearing right for me to feel comfortable, but it didn’t bother me because we went out and smashed it in the race! We had tried a few changes and with the team working really hard we were able to push on. I said after Brands Hatch that I didn’t want them to see me in the race and that’s what we did! It was quite surreal really as it didn’t hit me straight away and then driving home the win slapped me in the face! It felt good to win and that is where we want to be in every race from now until the end of the season”
About FFX
FFX, based in Folkestone, Kent, began trading in 2003 and has rapidly expanded to become one of the UK’s largest supplier of all the major tool brands as well as fixings and building supplies.
As well as gaining significant market share of the European online tool market via the FFX website, FFX recently became Ebay UK’s largest supplier of tools with unrivalled customer feedback and customer satisfaction.
Over the course of 2014, FFX will be expanding its network of retail outlets as well as opening a new distribution centre.
More, from a press release issued by BayAreaRidersForum.com Racing:
Anthony and BayAreaRidersForum.com Racing finish strong at Oulton Park
Even with a broken finger and a bad start, BayAreaRidersForum.com rider, Anthony Alonso, was able to push through the pain and finish his highest-yet position in the ultra-competitive Motul Motostart BSB Championship.
With the main event of the weekend taking place on Monday, during the UK’s bank holiday, Saturday saw Anthony continuing to learn Oulton Park. First practice went well, with Anthony sitting well in the top-10 positions.
Unfortunately, second practice would not go as well. During the second half of the session, a fellow rider high-sided immediately in front of Anthony and he had to make the quick decision of running him over or crashing himself. “I could see he was about to crash, he came in too fast and started sliding. I was already thinking I better around him… then suddenly he high-sided. I tried to get out of the way but his bike was sliding on one side blocking me and he was right in front of my path. My only option was to low-side the bike and crash so I would not run him over” said Anthony.
Anthony continued “thanks to my SaferMoto vest, I barely touched my Arai helmet, just a tiny scratch, and everything was fine… well, except for my fingers. They were in a lot of pain”. Immediately after the incident Anthony was brought to the medical center for a check-up, where it was discovered he had heavily bruised his right ring-finger and broken his right pinky. Unfortunate, since Anthony uses all 4 fingers for braking.
Sunday activities started late at Oulton Park, with QP1 taking place at 1pm and QP2 taking place at 6pm. Anthony had to get medically-cleared in order to ride, and after a few exercises and “grabbing” tests he was given the green-light. “I was so happy to be able to ride, but after that I was trying to figure out if my fingers would be able to fit into the glove, since they were so swollen” said Anthony.
?QP1 saw Anthony finish the 4th-fastest 125 and about 2.5 seconds off pole, set by a KTM Moto3. “I knew that I could close the gap farther. Those Moto3s are fast, very fast, specially on exit and on top-speed. They go past you like you are standing still. You have to be very quick on the 125s to keep the gap” explained Anthony.
Anthony went even faster in QP2, a full second faster, and placed himself in the 3rd row of the main event. Anthony went on to say “I know I could have gone a little bit faster. I know it. But towards the end of the session I got caught up behind a couple of Moto3 bikes and even though I was faster I just could not get rid of them in time. By the time I was finally away, it was too late. When I got to parc ferme I realized my finger was hurting a lot. I began to worry about the race. My dad got my an ice pack and that helped with the swelling”
Race day went on without major incidents and the Motul MotoStar Championship race started on time, at 2:55pm with a 14-lap main event. Anthony got a bad start and it saw him go from 9th place to 20th by the time he reached turn 2. “I got a horrible start. That’s all I can say. But I knew that was the past, and now I needed to focus on making up places as quickly as possible. I pushed hard to get around riders. At one point I passed like 3 or 4 on the outside. I was just going as fast as I could. For like 3 laps I kept pushing, but I ran out of brakes into the Hizzy Chicane. I was drafting someone and when I arrived at the corner I was going much faster than I expected. I decided to go through the barriers, rather than trying to make the corner and risk low-siding”. Anthony continued “when that happened I ended up at the back of the 3rd group. I had to start again. I got into a couple of good fights with other riders, it was fun. At the end I was able t o get around the entire 3rd group and led them to finish 4th in the 125GP race and 6th overall. I want to thank everyone for their help getting me here. Without BayAreaRidersForum.com Racing, Evolution Motorcycles, Iain Hutton, Arai, RoadRacing World, Helimot and SaferMoto.com I would not even be here. Obviously, I also want to give special thanks to Kevin and Steve for fixing my bike after the crash. Snetterton is in a few weeks and I cannot wait.” concluded Anthony.