British Superbikes - 2008 Race Reports

Unfortunatel due to unforseen tchnical issues we were unable to compete at Knockhill .We are however hoping to be back on track at the next round at Mallory Park

Galleries: Photos by Paul Korkus - Photos by Turn One Photography - Photos by Turn One Photography - Photos by Paul Korkus

Results: Superbike Champ - Superstock 1000

Cadwell Park - 23, 24 and 25 August 2008 - Round 9

Sorry, no report available.

Galleries: Photos by Carsten Evans - Photos by Turn One Photography - Photos by Paul Korkus

Results: Superbike Champ - Superstock 1000

Croft - 12, 13 and 14 September 2008 - Round 10

Croft was to be another story of two halves for Chris and the MV Agusta. We had visited Croft the previous week with Chris and Vic to get some settings, but the weather then was very changeable from dry in the morning to heavy rain in the late afternoon. However the first session saw Chris and Vic running with the fastest out there, but a wet session after lunch saw the MV stop with water affecting the Motec system and Vic tipping off. But we had enough setting to go to Croft with confidence.

When we arrived at Croft on Thursday morning the sun was shining. Due to lack of garage facilities, we were to set up at the bottom of the pit lane with a garage made for Chris and Vic in the awning overlooking pit lane and the circuit. It was a great position and very good for our guests. Vic had been offered a ride on the CO-ORDIT bike in the Henderson Yamaha R1 Cup so he was going to be a busy boy.

Friday and as usual Chris was first out for free practice. This didn't go well with Chris finishing twenty sixth overall and seventh in the cup. And this was not to improve much with Chris going slower in his second free practice later in the day. Much work was to be needed to get Chris and the MV on the pace.

On Friday Vic had his Superstock free practice session and his first qualifer. Free practice went quite well with Vic thirteenth overall, but a damp qualifier saw Vic finish 24th and struggling to get a good setting on the bike.

Saturday as usual started with Chris's third free practice, and on a damp and slippery track Chris managed to put the MV fifth fastest overall and first in the cup. Qualifying followed just after lunch and on a dry track Chris finished the first qualifying session in seventeenth position and second in the Cup, taking him forward to qualifying two where he finished nineteenth overall and third out of the Cup riders.

Vic was out on the R1 Cup bike for his free practice where he finished fourth fastest overall. Next he was out on the Superstock bike for the second qualifier and finished in thirteenth position giving him a combined position of thirteen which he was disappointed with. Later however Vic qualified sixth in the R1 Cup and second row on the grid.

Saturday night was spent as usual working on the bikes and then relaxing with dinner and a few drinks.

Sunday and the weather was cloudy but dry and Chris was first out for his warm-up session, where he finished nineteenth overall and second in the Cup. The Superstock warm-up session went ok for Vic, finishing twelfth overall and then he had to wait all day for his race which was last on the programme.

Superbike race one and Chris got swallowed up in the start, dropping back to twenty-second before starting a slow climb back to finish nineteenth overall and third in the Cup. Another podium! In the second race Chris had a better start climbing up through the field, unfortunatey retiring on lap eight with a suspected crankshaft failiure. This was later diagnosed as a broken generator drive gear.

Vic's Henderson R1 race was straight after Chris's first race, and Vic rode to a very satisfying third place, just taking the third place out of the last corner on the last lap.

The Superstock race started at twenty past five. Vic made a good start and at the end of lap one was in tenth place just behind Adrian Coates. He continued pushing and ended up ninth overall.

So yet again a weekend of mixed fortunes, but a fantastic and well deserved ride by Vic in the R1 Cup - thanks to Pete Bradshaw of CO-ORDIT for making that happen.

Galleries: Photos by Turn One Photography - Photos by Paul Korkus

Results: Superbike Champ - Yamaha R1 Cup - Superstock 1000

Silverstone - 26, 27 and 28 September 2008 - Round 11

After testing at Silverstone the previous week we were all confident that we were on target for a couple more podium finishes in The Daily Star Privateer Cup. The weather forecast was good and we had a garage - which always pleases Paul, our crew chief. However there was not enough room to run Vic out of the garage as well, so we made a garage for him in the awning which was situated directly behind the garage.

Friday and Chris was first out for free practice and immediately struggled with front end chatter, even though we were using the same setting that we had from the test. Chris improved his time in the second practice later on Friday afternoon, but remained fourth fastest in the cup. Vic, on the other hand, had a solid free practice session finishing twelfth, and then later in the day in his first qualifier he improved both his time and position to finish ninth. We were all pleased with Vic's day but less so with Chris's, and the guys spent the early evening making numerous suspension changes.

Saturday and we met our guests from The MV Owners Club, who had joined us for the weekend. What a nice bunch of guys they were, we were able to show them around the garage and pits and were pleased that they could get an insight into the Team.

Chris was first out for his third and final free practice and still suffering from the front end chatter, but he managed to improve his time slightly. A few quick changes were made before The Roll For Pole again Chris improved his time, but finished twenty third and fourth in the cup, not the best chance for race day. Vic had his second qualifier and impoved his time by nearly a second giving him a combined qualifying position of eighth and second row on the grid for Sunday's race. Saturday afternoon was again spent working on the MV with more settings to try to improve things.

After a hard day we invited some of Vic's sponsors from Rygor Commercials to join us for dinner, and we had a great light hearted evening mostly at Vic's expense.

Sunday and again the sun was shining. After a good evening we thought things could only get better. We had breakfast and went to watch Chris's Warm-up only to see him running into the garage to get on the spare bike as the chain had snapped on the number one bike. On examination the chain looked to have suffered stress fractures to many of the links, something that no-one had seen before. Vic's Warm-Up went as planned leaving Vic confident for a good top ten result in the race.

Vic was first out in the afternoon for The National Superstock Race and made a good start, getting into seventh place and after some hard riding he finished sixth overall, his best ever Superstock finish. Perhaps the guys from Rygors Commercials should come more often.

Chris was out next for the first of his two races. Many changes had been made, but unfortunately Chris had not had the opportunity to try them out in anger with the chain issue in warm-up. We needn't have worried as Chris made a good start and was soon making his way through the field. We all looked on in awe as he carved his way up to fifteenth place and second in the cup. This result was later to be amended to thirteenth in the race and first in the cup after Gary Mason, the Cup winner, was disqualified for technical reasons and Tom Sykes was disqualified for an unfair move on Haslam.

Race two and Chris was fired up and ready to go. We watched as the lights went out on the starting gantry and thought that barring any problems we should be on for a second podium. But what happened was absolutely unbelievable. Chris had not completed his first lap when the chain broke, leaving him to walk back to the pits in despair.

We left Silverstone wondering what on earth we had to do to get a fair run. Although we had been gifted the win this was little consolation for the second race. Oh well deep breath and on to the final meeting at Brands -- with a test there just before it should be good.

Galleries: Photos by Nigel Jones - Photos by Roger Barker - Photos by Turn One Photography

Results: Superbike Champ - Superstock 1000

Brands Hatch - 10, 11 and 12 October 2008 - Round 12

We left the workshop with high hopes for the weekend ahead. Chris had been to Brands the previous Friday and had got a good set up for the circuit. Vic was excited to be having his first Superbike ride on the JHS Racing Honda and we were all looking forward to the weekend.

We arrived at Brands Hatch on Thursday morning and set about erecting the awning, which had been sited in a great position in the hospitality area. Chris and Vic were to share a garage for the weekend, so the garage crew set about the boarding and flooring down there. Everything was finished in time for dinner.

Friday was going to be hard for Vic, as he had his Superstock free practice and first qualifier straight after the first two Superbike free practice sessions. But at least the sun was still shining. The Superbike rides went quite well for Vic getting to grips with the Honda. In the first qualifier for the Superstocks Vic was a creditable fourteenth. Chris on the other hand struggled all day with a series of annoying problems, but as they say tomorrow is another day.

Saturday arrived with the sun shining again and things were much easier for Vic, who had his sessions spread out through out the day. First outing for Chris and Vic was Superbike free practice three. Vic finished in seventeenth place but Chris had more technical problems and finished the session having only completed seven laps and was bottom of the page.

Vic was out next in the second Superstock Qualifier and stormed to seventh overall giving him a combined qualifying position of eighth and on the second row of the grid for Sunday's race. Chris and Vic were next out in the Superbike Roll For Pole where Vic finishied one place in front of Chris who again was hampered by technical problems. This left Vic twenty fourth and Chris twenty fifth on the grid. The guys in the garage had a lot of work to do on the MV for Sunday's race.

Race day came and still the sun was shining. What was going on? The Superbikes had their warm up first and the MV behaved itself and finished with no problems, as also did Vic. The Superstock was the first race and Vic made a great start up into fifth place but a few mistakes saw him slip to eighth place by lap five, a position that he held to the end of the race. This left him ninth in the Superstock Championship, his best ever finish.

So now to race one of the Superbikes. Chris took the lead from Vic but by lap two Vic had passed Chris and pulled a small gap. Chris chased Vic down, finally passing him on lap twelve and they finished twenty first and second respectively. This was Vic's first Superbike race and it was a fantastic achievment. Chris on the other hand had used the race almost as a practice session and had many changes to make for race two.

The second race started well for both Chris and Vic, but this time Chris had overtaken Vic by the third lap and was on a charge. Vic stayed behind Chris for a couple of laps but then began dropping back, finally to retire on lap ten with an overheating engine and brake problems. Chris continued his charge through the field and finished a fantastic eleventh overall and third in the Cup.

So finally we had reason to party which we did! Unfortunately Chris could not stop as his partner Nikki is expecting their first baby but we had a few for him anyway.

Now we start to put it all together again for next season - watch this space.

Galleries: Photos by Turn One Photography - Photos by Roger Barker

Results: Superbike Champ - Superstock 1000