Motorcycles and news

With a number of people struggling with the Kawasaki’s this year Roberts saw it as a new challenge and was keen to prove he is adaptable. That he did, consistently fast throughout the weekend saw him break the Cadwell Park lap record on his first outing on the bike on Saturday during free practice.

Having to make slight alterations through the weekend and adjust the bike to his riding style the talented Australian secured a front row start in third position. A good start in the race saw him settle in nicely with the front runners in sixth position. Not letting the leaders get away Roberts was swapping positions on the opening laps and had soon moved up to fourth place behind John Laverty, Luke Quigley and Adam Jenkinson.

A tidy manoeuvre on Jenkinson saw him move to a podium position while he hunted down the leaders. Race leader, John Laverty was beginning to pull a gap on the chasing pack. Roberts managed to get through to second place by lap four and began to close down Laverty who has managed to bridge a two second lead at this point.

Setting the fastest lap of the race he was keen to gain a win on his first time out on the Kawasaki. Within three laps the talented rider had caught Laverty and made a clean pass on him into the Hairpin. Lap eight saw Roberts run slightly wide at the chicane which also saw second place man Laverty crash out.

Luke Quigley had been carefully watching proceedings and was beginning to close in on the race leader, by lap ten he was on the back of Roberts and was eager to make a pass which he did so on lap 11. Roberts stuck with Quigley and looked comfortable and likely to re-take the lead. The heavens opened on lap 13 and the race was abruptly red-flagged, leaving Roberts to take second place, an extremely good position for his first time on the bike.

Commenting the Grantham based rider said “It was great to get the Kawasaki on the podium straight away. I took the ride on as a challenge to see how I would go after people haven’t been able to get the bike to work. I think by Silverstone with a little more testing the bike can be fast for race distance, as I struggled with the rear tyre and shock by mid race distance.”

National Superstock Race Result

Luke Quigley                      Suzuki
Brendan Roberts              Astro Kawasaki
Lee Jackson                       Yamaha
Adam Jenkinson                  Suzuki
James Rose                         Suzuki
John Laverty                        Suzuki

Championship Standings