WHAT the WSB round and the following BSB round at Brands Hatch yesterday has shown us is that although BSB is a great series, the front of both Superbike and Supersport in the UK are quite a long way behind the front pace in the World paddock. We have some good up and coming riders in the British series but when the best result by a wild card is 10th for Sam Lowes in the World Supersport race then we can all see there is some way to go for all. In Sam’s defence his bike is no-where near the pace of ours or the Ten Kate Hondas. The trouble is in these hard times it appears that BSB is looking at performance and cost cuts and this will make the gap between a BSB and WSB machine even bigger. This in turn will more or less rule out the chance of a competitive Wild Card – which will not help our young riders improve and show themselves to the world teams – or give the British fans such a treat at the home round. MotoGP is looking to run 1000cc machines to boost the very small Moto GP grid and this is really needed. Moto2 is now a 600 class as well which may or may not affect Supersport. I have always said the major cost in Supersport is not the bikes and In Front the WSB promoters have come up with some good cost cutting ideas for Supersport which include a one bike rule and added weight to stop the use of titanium and carbon fibre bodywork. I for one would encourage BSB to have the same rules so at least in Supersport our young riders have the chance to show their worth at World level. Superbike is harder but let’s just hope Stuart Higgs who does such a great job in BSB can get together with the teams to find the right compromise to move forward whilst still giving us the best chance to produce the next Laverty, Crutchlow, Rea, Haslam, Camier etc so we can continue with the British push to get to the top of the world. All these riders helped their World careers in no small way with good showings as Wild Cards. For the first time in many a year there is a realistic chance for Cal, Eugene, Johnny and hopefully Leon as well to move into top teams and give us a good chance of a British rider once again challenging in MotoGP. This is a true testament to the success of both BSB and WSB series. Since I last wrote a column we had the DNF at Brno which whilst it put our title challenge back has not put us out of it and as a team we have analysed what we can do better in the future to try and avoid things like this. I will not go into it here but for sure there are things we would do different if we were in the same position again. As you all know by now Eugene won what was the best WSS race this year by far at Silverstone to reduce the deficit to Sofuoglu to 17 points with three rounds left. Now you do not have to be a mathematical genius to work out that even if we win the final three races Keenan can beat us by two-points if he finishes second in them all. The best thing for us is I doubt that he can bring himself to do that so we will keep the pressure on as the slightest slip by him will open the door for us. What is a big shame is the crash for Joan Lascorz at Silverstone when he and Eugene collided on the exit of turn one – then Tamburini hit Lascorz and crashed as well. Thankfully although Joan suffered some injuries and broken bones he will be OK and I hope able to ride before the end of this season. Whilst some of my favourite forum critics did not waste time in trying to blame Eugene for the crash and have a cheap dig at me it was clear to all the more informed people that Joan ran wide as Eugene rode underneath him and they both just basically met in the middle as they drove towards the next corner. Eugene was already past Joan as the damage to our bike showed with a broken stand bobbin to the rear of the swing arm. This was just a racing incident and we all as a team wish Joan a speedy recovery as the Kawasaki team and Parkalgar Honda are all good friends.
And Now A Word From Parkalgar Honda Team Manager Simon Buckmaster
And Now A Word From Parkalgar Honda Team Manager Simon Buckmaster
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