Seventh for Jessopp British Supersport Thruxton Riders Racing Ducati rider Martin Jessopp secured a confidence building seventh position in the British Supersport Championship at Thruxton circuit this weekend. The 21-year-old from Yeovil rode a strong race despite the fact that a stone had put a hole in the radiator in the early stages of the race causing the Ducati to overheat throughout the race, this also effected the power delivery of the bike and therefore he had to bring the 749 home in a good top ten position. Despite the problem Jessopp made the most of his first ever-front row start in the Supersport class gaining a great start and was second into the first corner. He was pushed to third by Jamie Robinson and was holding off the chasing pack well until the hole caused the damage forcing Jessopp to fight for all he could. It has been a mixed couple of weekends for the Riders Racing Team when Jessopp scored his first podium position last weekend at Brands Hatch but was later excluded due to the machine not starting parc ferme after the race. This problem was caused by a failure internally in the starter motor, a problem which the team have never experienced before. Commenting he said “I’ve had a really mixed couple of weekends but glad to finally get on the points table in the Championship results. I had a couple of problems in the race, we were advised to run a slightly harder tyre compound and I just couldn’t get it to work right and I was struggling to get grip. I didn’t know about the radiator problem until after the race but I knew the bike was loosing power and was running at and exceptionally high temperature. I’m hoping Silverstone will be more encouraging and that we can improve on seventh place. Obviously I would have liked to have finished higher up and everything had been running well all weekend, we just had a couple of niggling problems on race day that we really could have done without.” The next British Supersport race is at Silverstone Circuit on 27th 29th April. British Supersport Result: M Laverty Suzuki J Robinson Honda B McConnell Yamaha J Westmoreland Honda S Easton Kawasaki I Hutchinson Honda M Jessopp Riders Racing Ducati D Cooper Honda J Kennedy Honda A Lowes Honda More, from a press release issued by Samsung Superbike: Thruxton woes for Samsung Superbike team. The Samsung Superbike team had a tough day at the office with only one race finish achieved out of three race starts. The mechanical gremlins were out in force for Dean Thomas on the Samsung Suzuki Superbike and his team-mate Jon Kirkham on the Samsung Ducati Superstock bike. It started to go wrong for the team in qualifying when Bennetts British Superbike rider Thomas suffered an engine failure and then an electrical problem, although he still qualified in fourteenth place. “I couldn’t believe it, my engine blew in qualifying and then my spare bike developed an electrical fault so I only managed five laps! I just had time to put in one qualifier and set my time,” he said. Thomas finished race one in sixteenth position but it was a struggle due to tyre choice, “I picked the wrong tyre and ended up sixteenth. There were two options and I chose the one that I tested and felt most consistent on but it just wasn’t fast enough, I was comfy on it but not fast.” Race two turned out to be a non starter and this time it was due to the clutch, “My clutch went, the bike just started to spin up on the second lap. We now know that each clutch only does two starts, but to be honest it has been a tough weekend on all the Suzukis. Chris Walker on the Rizla machine had similar problems.” Kirkham had similar luck to his team-mate as he explained, “My gearbox went during qualifying which was far from ideal. Then in the race I had a bad feeling from the front end of the bike. We had made some changes but obviously we went the wrong way with them. I felt there was no point in crashing so I pulled in. It is hard work trying to get the bike dialled in I just hope things go better for us at Silverstone. I’ve gone well there before; I’ve had good results in the past.” The team are hoping to test before the next round at Silverstone as Thomas explains, “We are hoping to make some progress before Silverstone. The plan is to test at Oulton Park but the guys need to rebuild the bikes, so we will see where we are at and take it from there,” he concluded. The next round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship and the Metzeler National Superstock will take place on the 27th 29th April at Silverstone in Northants. More, from a press release issued by Richie Morris Racing: The Daytona H.D. Buell / Richie Morris Racing team finished third in the Grand Sport Twin class at the Suntrust Moto-ST event this past weekend in Homestead Florida. The team experienced problems with the brakes on lap 6 and went down 3 laps while making repairs. The riders, Shawn Higbee and Dan Bilansky then set a blistering pace to run down the field. When time ran out, they had positioned themselves in third place. “The week started out great with the Ocean Deck signing back on as a team sponsor. Practice went fairly well with the guys leaning the track. We don’t know what happened with the brakes in the race, somehow they got air in them. However, I am very pleased with the entire team for not panicking and making our way back through the field. We would like to send special thanks out to Henry Duga for helping us in the pit. Also congratulations to the Kessee family for their class win” stated Morris. The Daytona H.D. Buell / RMR team will be at VIR in 2 weeks with hopes of maintaining their points lead. The riders will be Shawn Higbee who is sponsored by Bartels H.D. Buell / New Castle Buell and Clint Brotz. Dan Bilansky will be riding his Hals H.D. Buell at the ASRA event in Topeka Kansas. More, from a press release issued by Tim Knutson Racing: EVAN STEEL PERFORMANCE RIDERS IVAN GARZA AND TIM KNUTSON FINISH 1-2 IN FORMULA 1 AT THE OPENING ROUND OF THE WERA WEST SERIES IN LAS VEGAS APRIL 15TH. Ivan Garza won the Formula 1 race and A Superbike and finished 3rd in A Superstock in Sunday’s race action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. On lap 6 of a 3 way battle between Jason Perez Chad Lewin and Ivan, Jason and Chad came together entering turn 4 putting both riders down which brought out the red flag stopping the race giving Ivan the victory. Ivan, riding an Evan Steel Performance tuned K6 GSXR 1000 on Dunlops, ran his personal best lap time of 1:17.5 during the race to keep him in the lead pack. In the A Superbike race Ivan got off to a quick start leading from lap 1 to pull away to a 10 second victory over Premek Glinz and Tim Knutson who finished with in .051 second of each other. Tim Knutson finished 2nd behind Ivan in the Formula 1 race on a Little Big Racing Evan Steel Performance tuned 2006 Kawasaki ZX10. Starting from row 8 in the larger than normal field, Tim was able to get a decent start and work his way up to the 2nd spot on the podium. In the A Superbike race Tim just got edged out by Premek Glinz after a race long battle that included several close passes in the 8 lap final. Evan Steel Performance is a High Performance Motorcycle Shop located at 3442 Pennsylvania St Tuscon AZ (520)444-5125 More, from a press release issued on behalf of Dijon Compton: Broken Chain for Compton National Superstock Cup – Thruxton It was a disappointing end to the weekend at Thruxton Circuit for Dijon Compton. The 28-year-old from Huddersfield was looking strong throughout the weekend in the National Superstock Cup Championship and a loose chain in the race saw him having to struggle to finish in 23rd place. Compton, who was running consistently fast times throughout the weekend improved in every session. Taken two seconds off his time from first practice he managed to qualify in a strong 13th position in the grid. He was up to seventh in first qualifying but due to tyre restrictions used the same tyre in second qualifying and he got pushed back to 13th. Within the first lap of the race his chain had begun to loosen and he had dropped a position after lap one. As the bike began to loose grip and was spinning up throughout the majority of the remainder of the race the Yorkshireman decided just to bring his Astro Racing Kawasaki ZX10 home out of the points. Commenting he said “I’m disappointed not to have scored some more points this weekend but there was nothing that could be done. I was really enjoying the weekend and getting back into the swing of racing again after my time out. We changed the chain after morning warm up and it was brand new for the race, I knew it wasn’t right half way round the first lap. The rear tyre was spinning up and I wasn’t gaining the speed out of the corners that I needed. Hopefully this won’t happen again and now I can only prepare for Silverstone and hope for a better result there in a few weeks time.” The next race is at Silverstone Circuit on the 27th 29th April.