YOUNG’S THROTTLE STICKS OPEN DURING BRITISH SUPERSPORT RACE Qualifying: 13th Final race position: 14th Problems. Problems, problems: “Thanks to a series of problems, the weekend didn’t’ meet required the specifications! But, I guess that’s the way the racing cookie crumbles. We had a serious problem with the number one bike which really left us on the back-foot all weekend.” Qualifying: “During the first session on Friday the cam cover went on the number one bike and I was black flagged, missing the first session. The spare bike wasn’t ready to go. In the second session we got the spare bike going, but it wasn’t going to my liking with front-end problems. On Saturday night we managed to get the engine out of the number one bike and fixed it. In qualifying it felt good and I did some good times on a race tyre I was more than one second quicker than I was in the Oulton race earlier this year. I was 0.4 seconds off a front row start so I went for it and then washed the front out and dumped the bike at turn one. I was going for glory! Wish I hadn’t now, but I could see a front-row start. We didn’t have time to sort the number one bike out for second qualifying, so I used the second bike. We swopped forks with the No.1 bike and it felt good. We also changed the throttle grip as we had some problems with that. I thought everything was going to be hunky-dory for the race.” The Race: “I got a pretty good start and settled around 11th and 10th, battling with Jay Vincent and we were in touch with the top 10. By the second lap when people settle down and I try to make my moves I found I was rushing into corners as the throttle stuck open! I nearly ran off the track at Lodge and Island Bend. I’d be hard on the brakes but the throttle would be staying on. I can only think that when bike was down it had got lot grit in the throttle mechanism, hence it would sometimes stick on. I worked hard to bring it home in 14th place. I’m happy with my times at the start, though. Again we were about one second quicker than the start of year, but we had some big moments to deal with, just to bring it home.” Coming events: “I’m in a tizz at the moment, thanks to the impending Suzuka Eight-Hour. I’m packing and re-packing my bags in a bid to appease RyanAir’s baggage requirements. I’m off to meet my Swedish team who are running 4th in the World Endurance Championship at the moment. I’m looking forward to it as I love Suzuka. It has some blindingly fast corners and it’s a long track. If we’re reliable and get a good run, anything could happen, but a top 10 is the main aim, thanks to so many big Japanese teams out there. Back in 2003 I was running in 4th in the last hour before we had a 10-minute pit stop! That’s how unpredictable it can be there!” British Supersport Championship & Supersport Cup Oulton Park Race Result 1 – Cal CRUTCHLOW – Honda -Northpoint Ekerold Honda 2 – Tom SYKES – Suzuki – TAS Suzuki 3 – Leon CAMIER – Honda -Northpoint Ekerold Honda 4 – Dennis Hobbs – Honda – Padgetts 5 – Ian LOWRY – Suzuki – TAS Suzuki 6 – Ian HUTCHINSON Kawasaki – MSS Discovery Racing 7 – Kieran MURPHY Kawasaki – MSS Discovery Racing 8 – Jay VINCENT – Honda – Padgetts 9 -Joe Dickinson – Honda – GMP Racing 10 – Jamie Robinson – Honda – Bykerbabe.com 11 – Steven NEATE – Honda – Trucklinks Racing 12 – C Pete SPALDING – Honda – Centurion Racing 13 – Martin JESSOPP – Ducati – Lloyds British Ducati 14 – Paul YOUNG – Triumph – Paul Young Racing 15 – Guy MARTIN – Yamaha – AIM Racing