WORLD SUPERBIKE WEEKEND VICTORY FOR MASON LAW AT DONINGTON PARK
Mason Law was back in the World Superbike Championship paddock this weekend at Donington Park, where the Benfleet lad continued to impress in the Pirelli National Superstock 600cc class, taking his fourth straight win this season without reply.
Pole position, the aforementioned victory and a new lap record capped off another dominant performance from the NMT No Limits Kawasaki rider, who now heads the championship table by 38 points after his perfect 100 point haul to start the season.
Mason Law:
It’s great to get another 25 points in the bag at Donington, especially on a World Superbike weekend here, which is a great place to do it. It was another solid weekend for us and the pace we have had on the ZX-6R has been spot on. I got well into the ‘thirty-twos’ so I’m really happy, although the race was a slight anti-climax. But as I say, 25 points and a lap record isn’t something we can complain about. Thanks to the team for a big effort.”
Result:
Winner – Mason Law [NMT No Limits Kawasaki]; 2nd – Ben Currie [Yamaha] +1.966sec; 3rd – Dan Stamper [Kawasaki] +3.206sec; 4th – Tarran Mackenzie [Kawasaki] +3.391sec; 5th – George Stanley [Kawasaki] +8.360sec; 6th – Ben Stafford [Kawasaki] +9.732sec
Championship Points [after 4 rounds]
Mason Law 100pts
Ben Currie 62pts
Joe Francis 41pts
Tarran Mackenzie 37pts
Brad Jones 32pts
Malachi Mitchell-Thomas 30pts
More, from a press release issued by Team Traction Control:
Francis and Team Traction Control suffer Donington disappointment
Team Traction Control’s Joe Francis left the fourth round of the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship disappointed after improving his pace throughout the weekend before crashing out of the race at Donington Park.
Francis has secured his best qualifying result of the season in third, starting the race from the front row of the grid. However a moment on the opening lap at Redgate dropped the Chester-based contender down the order and then he crashed out whilst battling his way up the order.
Francis said: “The weekend started good for us and we started in the top four and then had our best result of the session in third. The race was a disaster for me as I got a fairly ok start and then Tarran Mackenzie came passed me and I shut off, but when I got back on the gas I nearly high-sided and I think I lost 20 places. I got back up the order and then I crashed out – it makes the championship a bit harder but I haven’t given up!”
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office:
TEAM SUZUKI EUROPE DRAFT-IN COX FOR DONINGTON
Team Suzuki Europe drafted-in British Superbike Championship rider Victor Cox at the very last minute for the weekend’s fourth race in the 2015 Superstock 1000 Championship at Donington Park in the UK; and came away with positive data for the next round after finishing just outside the points yesterday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Cox, deputising for injured Nigel Walraven, only first stepped aboard the Hoegee Racing GSX-R1000 Suzuki an hour before the second practice session where he joined 2015 team rider Wayne Tessels. But his knowledge of the Donington circuit helped the team to set-up both Suzuki GSX-Rs Tech suspension and modifying the Yoshimura ECU by Hoegee Suzuki Tuning.
Cox qualified 20th and Wayne Tessels 21st position for the starting grid. In the race, both avoided an early crash ahead of them, Tessels resuming in 24th position and pushing the Suzuki and Pirelli tyres hard to gain positions and managing to get 15th position in sight; as Cox raced to 16th position.
Marc Hoegee – Team Manager:
“Despite the chaotic start to the event, I’m looking back on a very positive weekend. We made a lot of progress to get to the top 15 and points for the championship. This weekend we just missed those points, but in the upcoming races we can benefit from this weekend to get points. The team really did an excellent job, and especially the last-minute adjustments for Victor was hard work. I’m very proud and thankful for the tremendous teamwork!”
Victor Cox:
“I had a great start, coming from 20th to 16th. It’s a shame we just missed out on 15th and points, but I was so happy with how the weekend ended. The team did an amazing job getting the bike to work with me in the 30 minutes before the second practice session. Massive thanks to all the team members at Team Suzuki Europe; it was a great pleasure to ride for the team.”
Wayne Tessels:
“In all it was a positive weekend because we made really important steps. We had a difficult weekend at Imola and the beginning in Donington was hard, but eventually we managed to get 1.5-seconds quicker. The start of the race wasn’t very good, I got caught up in traffic and had to get off the throttle. Therefore I had to resume the race from 24th position, but got a good pace and worked my way to 15th position. Unfortunately my underarms started to get painful and that made me make some errors. We finished 17th but we found a good base to work on and I’m really looking forward to Portimao.”
This week Nigel Walraven’s physical situation will be evaluated and a surgeon will decide if operating is possible.
More, from a press release issued by Jenkinson Racing:
Donington disaster for Jenkinson
Adam Jenkinson’s hopes of challenging for the 2015 Pirelli National Superstock 1000cc Championship took a huge blow at Donington Park on Sunday when brake failure caused the Knutsford rider to crash on the fifth lap at over 150mph. The Northern Escalator Installations rider had been battling for the lead when the crash happened with the end result being dislocation and breaks to bones in his hand.
Up until then the weekend had been going perfectly with Adam never outside the top three in either the free practice or qualifying sessions. His race pace on the Yamaha R1 was extremely strong and a lap of 1m31.276s in the second qualifying session placed him third and on the front row of the grid for the 12-lap race with just 0.1s separating the top three riders.
With a good start, Adam immediately slotted into second place as he ran in close company with Josh Elliott, Hudson Kennaugh and Alastair Seeley. Despite slight drizzle falling on the fourth lap, Adam was comfortable sitting behind Seeley and in one of the rostrum positions but disaster struck on lap five. Heading along the start and finish straight and towards Redgate Corner at close to 160mph, the front brake completely failed without warning and Adam crashed out. Obviously winded and bruised, he was fortunate to escape with dislocated bones in his hand, damaged knuckles and a broken bone which has subsequently been pinned.
Subsequent inspection of the front brake cylinder by the team showed their was no fault on their behalf and the failure has now resulted in the component awaiting inspection from Yamaha representatives.
Adam Jenkinson: “I feel fortunate to be sitting here now with such relatively minor injuries after crashing at that speed. The bike had been perfect all weekend and with a new fuelling system, I was able to run inside the top three throughout. I was able to do many laps in the 1m31s bracket so knew we had good race pace and I was really confident going into the race.”
“I made a good start and felt really comfortable with the pace and just sat behind Seeley when he came by me. I’d experienced no problems at all with the brake but on the fifth lap, when I went to brake going into Redgate, the bar came right back to the lever and all I had to slow me down was a little bit of back brake. I had to bail off as soon as I hit the gravel and just flew into the air fencing so to only suffer injuries to my hand is a miracle.”
“I know it was no fault of the team’s and we’re just waiting to see now what the problem was once Yamaha have looked into it. It was obviously a very scary moment and I’d like to say a massive thank you to Dr Mohammad Waseem, a limb specialist at Macclesfield District Hospital, for operating on me so quickly.”
The next round of the Championship takes place at Snetterton on June19-21.
Pirelli National Superstock 1000cc Championship (12 laps)
1 Hudson Kennaugh (BMW)
2 Joshua Elliott (Kawasaki)
3 Alastair Seeley (BMW)
4 Richard Cooper (Kawasaki)
5 Luke Quigley (BMW)
6 Michael Robertson (Kawasaki)
DNF Adam Jenkinson (Northern Escalator Installations Yamaha)
Championship standings (after 4 rounds)
1 Elliott 85pts
2 Kennaugh 82
3 Seeley 68
4 Jenkinson 43
= Quigley 43
6 East 26
More, from a press release issued by Marty Nutt’s publicist:
Strong weekend at Donington for Nutt
Castlerock’s Marty Nutt maintained his challenge for the 2015 Ducati TriOptions Cup at Donington Park over the Bank Holiday weekend with three top four finishes. The Penso/Ducati Coventry/nutttravel.com rider took two podiums in the three races to stay in second place overall and lie just five points off the Championship lead.
The Leicestershire circuit hosted three races with the first taking place on Saturday afternoon as a replacement for the race cancelled at Oulton Park at the beginning of the month. With Robbie Brown proving to be the man of the weekend, winning all three races, Marty opened his account in solid fashion with a good third place.
Having qualified fourth for the second race, it proved to be Marty’s lowest finish of the weekend as he took fourth place, two sluggish laps at the start resulting in him losing the tow to the leading trio.. However, he saved the best until last and although he again dropped back to fifth after Rob Guiver had a moment in front of him, causing him to run wide, he was able to regroup quickly. Indeed, with some determined overtaking moves, he moved back up to second place at the chequered flag.
The results from the three races have seen Brown move to the top of the Championship table on 110 points but Marty’s only five points adrift in second. Leon Morris, in turn, is just five points further back.
Marty Nutt: “I’m happy enough with the weekend’s results although I am a little bit disappointed to have slipped off the podium in the second race. I had two bad laps at the beginning though and dropped back to fifth by which time the front few riders had escaped. I was pleased with Sunday’s final result though particularly as I had to come back from fifth again. When Rob had his moment, it pushed me wide and I had to ease my pace and get going again. I managed to do that and with 2nd, 3rd and 4th, I was able to take a good haul of points over the weekend. Robbie was untouchable this weekend and with the lap record being hammered, the pace has really moved on so we’re going to have a lot more hard fought races as the season wears on.”
The fourth round of the series takes place at Knockhill on 4-5 July.