Walker and SMT claim top 10 Championship position Chris Walker and the sorrymate.com/SMT Honda team overcame a number of electrical problems at Oulton Park at the weekend to finally clinch a top ten position in the 2010 British Superbike Championship. After running inside the top ten for much of the weekend, problems in both qualifying and the first two races left the team pointless but a fighting 9th place in Sunday’s final race was enough for them to finish in 10th place overall, their highest ever finish. The weekend started well for Chris and the team as they placed 9th fastest in both of Friday’s free practice sessions but a change in settings on Saturday morning saw them go in the wrong direction and Chris slipped back to 15th. Reverting back to Friday’s set-up, the team were hopeful of being back inside the top ten in qualifying but on just the third lap of the opening 20-minute session, an electrical problem saw Chris stranded out on the circuit and although he manfully pushed the bike back to the pits, by the time he got back the session had ended. Subsequently, he ended up in a lowly 27th on the grid. Starting from the seventh row for the first race was always going to be a tall order for Chris but he was determined to climb up the leaderboard as high as he could and, sure enough, a good start saw him up to 23rd at the end of lap 1 and this became 20th on lap 4 as he got on to the back of a five-man dice for 16th. After another two laps, he’d advanced to the front of the pack although, by this time, 15th place was a good few seconds further down the road. However, aided by the 14th fastest lap of the race (which placed him 14th on the grid for race 2), he was able to reel in Alastair Seeley although he agonisingly missed out on a Championship point by 0.073s at the chequered flag. Sunday’s opening race saw Chris line up on the fourth row of the grid and a great start saw him up to 11th on lap 1 and here he remained until lap 7 when he was promoted up to 9th after a crash involving leader James Ellison and Tommy Hill. A lap later though, the red flag was out and the race stopped due to debris on the track. Restarted over 7 laps, Chris was up to fifth on lap 1 after another excellent start and he was looking strong in this position as the race went into it’s third lap. However, that would prove to be as far as Chris got as he was forced to retire when the quickshifter broke. With three races over the course of the weekend, there was one last chance for Chris and the team and, after lying in 13th place in the early stages, Chris was able to inch his way forward. Up to 11th by lap 7, this became 10th a lap later when Stuart Easton was forced to retire and when Chris overtook Simon Andrews on lap 12, 9th place became his. Locked once more in a battle with John Laverty, Chris tried everything he could to overhaul his Kawasaki rival but had to settle for 9th at the chequered flag, just 0.111s adrift. Talking afterwards, team owner Robin Croft said: “It’s been a long old season and I’m glad it’s all over now – I’m shattered! The aim for the weekend was always to keep our 10th place in the Championship and now that’s been achieved, we’re all delighted. The weekend was plagued by electrical problems but we kept plugging away and fought until the end so to finish 10th overall and claim our best ever position is very, very pleasing. We’ve had a successful second half to the season and I’ve got to thank all the team for all their hard work – they’ve experienced a few ups and downs this year but have never stopped giving 110% so I’m delighted for them too. It’s been great working with Chris so a big thank you to him too and he’s acted like a professional and ridden like a professional even when the going’s been tough. All being well, we’ll be back to do it all again in 2011.” More, from a press release issued by John McGuinness’ publicist: McGuinness claims six hard-earned points at season finale Morecambe’s John McGuinness completed his Metzeler National 1000cc Superstock Championship season with a brace of 13th place finishes at the final round at Oulton Park at the weekend. The Padgetts Honda rider fought his way through the pack on each occasion to claim six hard-earned points and maintain his top ten place in the Championship table, eventually finishing in 10th overall. With the previous round at Silverstone having been cancelled, Oulton hosted two rounds with the first 12-lap race being held on Saturday afternoon, a race that saw John line up in 20th on the grid. After a good getaway, John got ‘boxed in’ somewhat at the first corner but he completed the opening lap in 19th place and by lap 4 he’d moved up to 17th. A lap later, he was up into the points in 15th place and involved in a good four-man battle for 12th place. Fighting strongly until the end, John posted his best lap of the race on lap 13 and it allowed him to move up to 13th and claim three hard-earned points. Race 2 on Sunday saw John line up in 14th place on the grid but, despite getting a good start when the lights turned green, when two riders in front of him collided, he had little option other than to take avoiding action. That dropped him all the way down the order to 19th once more and meant he had another battle on his hands just to get inside the points. Slowly, but surely, though he began to pick off the riders in front of him and by lap 7 he was up into the points. Overhauling Dan Stewart put John up to 13th and he immediately closed the gap to former Champion Lee Jackson in 12th. John tried to overtake on both the outside and the inside but just missed out on the run in to the line on the final lap and finished in 13th, only 0.202s behind Jackson. Speaking later, John said: “They were two tough races this weekend and, once again, the first lap was my undoing and coming from so far back is always tough. I gave it my all in both races and I was able to secure enough points in the two races to secure 10th overall in the title table, which is a solid position given the strength of the Championship. It’s been a really competitive year on both the circuits and the roads but the team have worked tirelessly at each and every meeting and I can’t thank them enough for their efforts. My plans for next year have yet to be finalised but I’ll be back racing again and am determined to get back to winning ways – there’s plenty of racing left in John McGuinness and I aim to firmly get back to the front of the pack.” John has one more meeting left this year with the annual Macau Grand Prix taking place in the Far East colony from November 18th-21st. More, from a press release issued by GNS Racing: More Points For GNS Racing Honda At Oulton GNS Racing Honda rounded out their 2010 Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship season at Oulton Park today with points scoring finishes for both newly crowned champion Sam Lowes from Lincoln and Derbyshire rider Christian Iddon despite both riders encountering problems. The duo recorded 8th and 13th place respectively at the Cheshire venue and it was a weekend of celebration for the team with Sam picking up the Champion’s trophy and the team picking up the coveted Team Merit Award presented by ENI, the official fuel partner, for their efforts during the season. For Lowes, the weekend didn’t end in the fashion he would have hoped as 8th place was the only time he’d been off the podium in the 11 races he’d finished this year but a practice crash left him back in 9th on the grid and his race was then further compromised when a first-corner collision left him with damaged handlebars. He gamely battled on and clawed his way up into the top six before slipping back slightly in the closing stages with clutch problems to eventually claim 8th place and finish the season with a winning margin of 33 points. For Iddon, it was also a tough weekend with a few minor technical issues affecting him in practice whilst he also had to start the 12-lap race from pitlane after the electronic dashboard stopped working on the warm-up lap. The problem was soon rectified and despite starting dead last, he worked his way excellently through the field to be rewarded with a hard-earned 13th place. Sam Lowes: “The bent handlebars compromised my race as I couldn’t ride as I wanted to but I concentrated hard on staying out of trouble after that and keeping everything clean and I was able to move up a few places. It’s slightly disappointing to end the season with an 8th but this weekend was all about getting the trophy and to finally get my hands on it is mega. I couldn’t cap the year off with a win but it’s been a great season and I’ve got to say a massive thanks to the team for making it all happen. I think we’ve done each other proud and I’ve been able to repay them for all their hard work with the title and I want to wish them all the best for 2011. I’ve got the World Championship to look forward to now and I’m going to be doing everything I can over the winter to make sure I come out fighting for the title and the race wins.” Christian Iddon: “The dash went out on me on the warm-up lap so I thought it best to come in and get the guys to check it out but once we’d turned the bike off and on again, it cleared itself although starting from pit lane was obviously a bit of a disadvantage. I had a good first lap though and after that I just picked people off one by one. It’s been an up and down year for me but I’ve been delighted to end the season with GNS Racing and with the British Championship-winning team. They’re very professional and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with them.” Gary Stubbington, Team Owner: “To end the year with both the Riders’ Championship and the Team Merit Award is absolutely brilliant and I’m over the moon with how the season has gone. The last round has been slightly disappointing, but we’ve enjoyed ourselves massively and I’m very, very happy. The trophies we’ve picked up are for all the team members who have been simply awesome all year long and it’s because of all their work and effort that we’ve achieved what we have. The bikes have been brilliant all year long and it’s been an unbelievable season for everyone concerned so roll on 2011!” More, from a press release issued by Marty Nutt’s publicist: Nutt’s season finishes in disappointing fashion at Oulton Marty Nutt’s British Supersport Championship season ended in disappointing fashion at the weekend when the Nutttravel.com/Dawn/T&G Racing rider was forced to withdraw from Sunday’s final round at Oulton Park. The Castlerock rider suffered a multitude of engine problems during practice and although he was kindly loaned a new engine by the East Coast Racing team, he ultimately ran out of time to set the machine up and reluctantly pulled out on race morning. After a run of good results, Marty was looking for more of the same at the Cheshire venue and move up to 11th in the Championship table and the weekend started in positive style with 12th place in Friday’s opening fee practice session. However, as he looked to improve his time in the afternoon’s second session, he was only able to complete 6 laps as the engine blew-up leaving him stuck out on the circuit. With no spare, it looked like Marty’s weekend was over there and then but the East Coast Racing team came to the rescue with the loan of a similar engine and Marty’s team worked hard to have it ready in time for Saturday morning. With a lap of 1m40.246s, his quickest of the weekend, Marty placed 14th in Saturday’s final free practice session but problems in the solitary qualifying session later that day saw him back down in 22nd. When the electrical problems continued in morning warm-up on Sunday, where he could only manage 21st place, Marty and the team took the decision to pull out rather than risk any damage to the loaned Yamaha engine. Speaking about the weekend, Marty said: “It’s been a disappointing final round and not the way I wanted to end the year but these things happen sometimes. I’d had a couple of engine problems earlier in the year so when we had the blow-up on Friday, we simply had no spares left to run and it was only thanks to the tremendous generosity of the East Coast Racing team that I was able to carry on. We actually had a number of teams offering to help us out, which was really nice to see and reassuring to know that there are plenty of good folk still out there. The problem with the bikes nowadays though is that the electronics packages they run are so sophisticated that you need to spend a full day on a dyno getting everything correctly mapped out and we just didn’t have the time to do that. We tried our best to get the bike set-up but were quite a way short of having the performance we would have liked so rather than put unnecessary strain on the engine or risk having a crash, I decided it was better to return the engine and sit the race out.” “Like I say, it’s a shame the season ended like this but it was no-ones fault and just one of those things. I’ve had a solid season with some good top ten results along the way so we’ll work hard over the winter months to come back strong in 2011. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of my sponsors and team for making it all happen as without them, none of it would have been possible and we’ll be giving it 110% to repay them with better results next season.”