SEELEY SPLASHES TO MAIDEN VICTORY MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship ROUND EIGHT BRANDS HATCH 7/8 AUGUST Alastair Seeley enjoyed his first victory in the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at rain-lashed Brands Hatch on Saturday afternoon and now the Relentless Suzuki by TAS rider will be on pole position for the second race of the eighth round at the Kent Grand Prix circuit on Sunday afternoon. The 30 year old from Carickfergus had graduated into the top flight on the strength of winning the National Superstock crown, in runaway style, last season but in difficult wet conditions Seeley charged into the lead on the opening lap of the re-started race, decided over ten laps, and then held off the determined and experienced Michael Rutter to take the victory. “That was unbelievable, a long time coming, but this is where I’ve always wanted to be, and the guys in the team have done a fantastic job for me,” said Seeley. “I was a bit aggressive on the opening lap, getting through and getting past a few, then I was sliding around a lot, I lost count of the number of times, and I had to tell myself to calm down. Then my visor steamed up, and I opened it but the wind was bringing tears to my eyes and had to close it,” he added. That made little difference as he powered on, heading Rutter home by a little under a third of a second and the RidersMotorcycles.com Ducati rider had no complaints at settling for second best: “He was sliding around but rode fantastically, while I struggled a bit.” Ryuichi Kiyonari took third place ahead of his HM Plant Honda team-mate Josh Brookes who moved into the series lead 229-219 ahead of Worx Suzuki rider Tommy Hill who struggled throughout, just scraping a single point as he took a 15th place finish. World Superbike regular Tom Sykes, riding the factory Kawasaki, returning for a one-off appearance in the domestic series took fifth place ahead of Michael Laverty, on the Relentless Suzuki, and James Ellison whose Swan Honda teamster Stuart Easton crashed out of contention at Paddock Hill. Yukio Kagayama ran eighth for Worx Crescent Suzuki from John Laverty on the Buildbase Kawasaki with Ian Lowry who had answered a late call to ride the second World Superbike Kawasaki completing the top ten. Chris Burns, riding Splitlath Aprilia won the Mirror.co.uk BSB-EVO class ahead of Aaron Zanotti but there was no luck for Jentin BMW rider Steve Brogan who tipped off under pressure from Gary Johnson midway through the race, losing the lead in the title stakes to Hudson Kennaugh. Earlier, Rutter, who had topped the Swan Combi Roll for Pole, had looked to be on course for a second victory of the season as comfortably led Brookes for nine laps with Kiyonari third from Michael Laverty and Seeley before rain fell bringing out the red-flags. For the record MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch, race one result: 1 Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 2 Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +0.298s 3 Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +1.470s 4 Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +2.926s 5 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki WSB) +14.320s 6 Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +17.241s 7 James Ellison (Swan Honda) +21.713s 8 Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +23.516s 9 John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +24.738s 10 Ian Lowry (Kawasaki WSB) +26.213s Championship standings: Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) 229 Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) 219 Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) 209 Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 193 Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) 185 Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 153 More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: The weekend has got off to a disappointing start for Worx Crescent Suzuki at the eighth round of the 2010 British Superbikes Championship at Kent’s Brands Hatch GP circuit: In the first race of the three-race programme, Yukio Kagayama placed eighth while Tommy Hill managed 15th. Earlier, Hill had qualified on the front row while Kagayama made the second row. Throughout Friday free practice, both riders wrestled with set-up issues and while Kagayama managed to maintain top-10 times, Hill surprisingly struggled to keep inside the top-20. In this morning’s final practice, however, Hill showed some of his racer’s craft and guile by springing the fastest lap in a session that started wet but was drying; Kagayama placed seventh fastest. In the ‘Swan Roll for Pole’ both riders pushed hard for one-off fast laps and both made the third and final qualifier. Hill then dug deep to set fourth fastest time and a claim a front row start in race one while Kagayama placed eighth for a second-row start. The race this afternoon was a troubled affair. Rain falling on lap 10 forced the race to be restarted. At the time Hill and Kagayama were running eighth and ninth. Hill was then hugely handicapped when he missed the call-up for the re-gridding and had to start from the back row. In the re-run race, over just ten laps, Kagayama held on for eighth place, while Hill, effectively starting in 30th position, did well to battle his way up to 15th. Yukio Kagayama: “We have worked hard this weekend to get a good feeling of connection between the throttle and the rear wheel. The feeling is improving each session and the team is working hard. In the re-run race I had to ride with my dry set-up on wet tyres, so I had a lot of wheelspin. This meant I changed my race plan from attack to making the finish. We are not perfect right now but the team is doing a good job and we are improving.” Tommy Hill: “There is no way I can feel happy right now. I know what we are capable of – we won here earlier this year – but at this time the bike just doesn’t feel like my own. In practice the bike never felt right and so for qualifying it was a case of biting down on the screen and putting in those one-off laps. But we haven’t got the right race set-up and we’ll be working hard on these tonight. “We can’t hide how disappointed we are, but we can’t lose sight of where we are in the championship and we’ll need to temper the urge to push hard tomorrow, to take on too much risk, with the knowledge we still lead on podium points for the Showdown.” Jack Valentine – Team Manager: “Tommy’s said it all: we’re extremely disappointed with where we are. We’ve got issues with the bikes’ set-up and we’re off the pace. It doesn’t make sense given that we had a race-winning set-up here at the beginning of the year. But this is racing, everything changes with every race, so tonight we’ll be working hard analysing our data and working with Tommy and Yukio to see what we can do to give the lads a better chance tomorrow. “This weekend, Suzuki has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of the GSX-R – and we’ve had a GSX-R on the top step of the podium today – so we’ll be doing all we can to see if we can’t put a Worx Crescent GSX-R or two up on the leaderboard too, tomorrow.” MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship: Swan Combi Roll for Pole result: 1. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) 1m:25.766s 2. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki WSB) +0.421s 3. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +0.456s 4. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.522s 5. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +0.638s 6. James Ellison (Swan Honda) +0.800s 7. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.815s 8. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.931s 9. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.981s 10. Ian Lowry (Kawasaki WSB) +1.430s Race one result: 1. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 2. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +0.298s 3. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +1.470s 4. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +2.926s 5. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki WSB) +14.320s 6. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +17.241s 7. James Ellison (Swan Honda) +21.713s 8. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +23.516s 9. John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +24.738s 10. Ian Lowry (Kawasaki WSB) +26.213s 15. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +34.253s MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship standings (after race one): 1. Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) 229 2. Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) 219 3. Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) 209 4. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 193 5. Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) 185 6. Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 153 16. Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) 39 More, from a press release issued by Swan Honda: SWAN HONDA PREPARE TO MAKE AMENDS AT BRANDS HATCH The Swan Honda team are determined to make amends in the final two races at Brands Hatch tomorrow for the eighth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship after James Ellison finished seventh and Stuart Easton crashed out whilst fighting for the top ten. The opening race was red flagged due to heavy rainfall and on the restart Ellison was making progress up through the pack before his visor misted up and a race of damage limitation saw him finish seventh. Easton meanwhile had to make up time after a collision into Surtees on the opening lap, fighting through to tenth but a crash at Paddock Hill Bend ended his race prematurely. Ellison said: “The race started off well for me in the dry; I got a good start and made a pass on Tommy Hill and I thought our pace was good and that we could chip away and move forward. The race was then red flagged and on the restart I didn’t get a bad start and was behind the HM Plant Honda boys. I felt I could match their pace and I wanted to stay with them and have a bit of a battle for the place. Towards the end of the race though my visor steamed up and I could barely see which is another one of those things that shouldn’t happen that has slowed us down this year. I just want to get out and win tomorrow now, to make amends for today.” Easton said: “When the race started I was up in the fight for the top ten and I felt I was running at a reasonable pace and was feeling happy that we could make some good progress up the field. It then started to rain and when we had the restart I collided at Surtees with Michael Laverty and it pushed us all out wide. It was then always going to be a tough task to come back, but I was moving up the order only to crash out at Paddock Hill. Overall I am happy with the pace though and feel that we should be able to put up a good challenge for the two races tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: Series rookie Alastair Seeley scored a magnificent debut British Superbike victory at Brands Hatch earlier today. The Relentless by TAS Suzuki rider qualified his GSX-R1000 Superbike strongly on row two in seventh position around the GP circuit. Then in a two-part opening race – red flagged because of rain – the diminutive Ulsterman, better known to racing fans as ‘The Wee Wizard’, held off seasoned professionals Michael Rutter and Ryuichi Kiyonari to take the team’s second British Superbike victory of the season in treacherous conditions. The victory sets the reigning British Superstock Champion up well for Sunday’s opening race, where he will take the coveted pole position slot after posting the fastest lap in today’s encounter. His victory also lifted him back into a provisional Showdown top-six position, eking out a 17-point margin over closest rival John Laverty. Alastair Seeley: “I got good starts today and that made the difference. I had some front-end issues in the dry part of the race, and in the re-start in the wet I had loads of slides on white lines and the kerbs, but managed with it okay. My visor steamed up so I opened it, but with the wind streaming into my eyes I had to shut it again. We held on for the win and it’s all credit to my Relentless by TAS Suzuki team and our superb GSX-R1000 Superbike that we made the top step. “This is what I’ve always wanted in racing and now that I’ve sampled it I’d like more of the same. A big thanks to all the team sponsors, and also those who have helped me over the years and brought me to this stage of my career, including my family.” Michael Laverty couldn’t better his Q2 qualifying time, but still made the all-important Q3 session – eventually heading up row three in ninth position. In today’ re-started race, Laverty had to come from dead last after being shunted off the circuit at Surtees on the opening lap. After re-joining the circuit, he kept his composure to pick his way through the field, taking some very valuable points in sixth place at the chequered flag. Michael Laverty: “It was a tough race for me today, especially after I got hit from behind on the opening lap and almost went down. Luckily I saved it and took a detour across the grass, but it left me in last position, so I had to fight hard to come through the field. Sixth was a decent result in the circumstances but also very frustrating as I know what I was capable of today. I will be hoping for better fortunes tomorrow.” Philip Neill – Team Manager: “What a phenomenal performance today from both riders. Alastair had me on the edge of my seat with his win, but his years of Superstock experience certainly aided him in today’s difficult conditions: he showed his precocious talented using absolute precision on throttle control in the closing stages. “It’s our second win this year from nine podiums, but to do it this weekend when Suzuki is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of its GSX-R range is pretty special. Granted we have found an extremely good wet set-up with our GSX-R1000 Superbikes and that credit must go to the boys in the team. “Michael Laverty showed true pedigree to come from last place after getting pushed off the track on lap one, and to come through to sixth place at the end with the fourth fastest lap of the race, also shows how polished Michael is becoming as a top BSB rider. “Whilst we are delighted to have taken our second win of the season today, we must not get carried away. Alastair, for me, must be the best rookie to have graced this series for many, many years, but he needs to remain calm and finish the weekend with two strong results on Sunday. We are also delighted to have scored maximum points for Suzuki in the manufacturers’ standings.” British Superbike Championship, Brands Hatch, race one result: 1 Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 2 Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +0.298s 3 Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) +1.470s 4 Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +2.926s 5 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki WSB) +14.320s 6 Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +17.241s 7James Ellison (Swan Honda) +21.713s 8 Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +23.516s 9 John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +24.738s 10 Ian Lowry (Kawasaki WSB) +26.213s Championship standings: 1 Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) 229 2 Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) 219 3 Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) 209 4 Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 193 5 Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) 185 6 Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) 153