Motorcycles and news

Things were smoother for 23-year-old Easton, but some handling issues meant that he wasn’t able to get the front-row start he wanted, but he is happy enough with eighth on the grid for the 18-lap MAXXIS British Supersport race.
Michael Rutter, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R (15th ­ 1m 27.387s)

“Obviously it’s frustrating to have these problems, but the big positive is that we’re not too far off on race tyres and our race set-up is pretty good. We had an electrical issue with the quickshifter and a gearbox problem with the other, which restricted us a fair bit. I didn’t even get to do a lap in anger on the qualifying tyre, which was a little disappointing. Either way I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. We are where we are, and we’re going to give it our best shot tomorrow.”
Stuart Easton, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R (8th ­ 1m 30.230s)

“I’m not too disappointed with that. We improved a fair bit and we have some work to do overnight. There’s not too much chatter from the front-end, but the problem is getting bike to hold a line. The issue may be with the front tyres so we’re going to work hard with Dunlop to try and improve things. Our feeling on the throttle is much improved so the overnight work helped big-time. Michael has been helping me a lot this weekend, which shows the team-spirit that we have. I’m still shooting for the podium, so if I can knock a further tenth off and get a good start, that’s the aim.”

Nick Morgan, Team owner

“We’ve had a few technical issues today but we have to look at the positives. Thanks to the quickshifter problem and the gearbox issue, Michael didn’t even get to do a lap on a Dunlop qualifier. On race tyres we’re about 1.4 seconds off, which when you realise the battle we’ve had just to get to this stage over the winter, is a hell of an achievement. We’ve also got a good race set-up, so we’re hopeful of better luck tomorrow. With Stuart, we’ve improved the bike for him and if he can get a good start we could be in with a podium.”

Stuart Simmonds, Joint team owner

“Once again the team has been absolutely magnificent. They worked through the night to ensure the guys were ready to go out first thing in the morning. Practice for this first round has typified our winter ­ it’s quite simply been a race against time. We’ve worked hard to just get here with the Superbike, so we’re confident that things will improve with time. With a little bit of luck we could get a good result. In Supersport, we’ve run Pirellis for three years, so getting used to the Dunlops is an issue, but we’re hoping for a good start that should help Stuart get the result he’s capable of.”

Maxxis British Supersport Championship

Sunday Qualifying
1 Dennis Hobbs
2 Billy McConnell
3 Michael Laverty
4 Jamie Robinson
5 Tom Grant
…
8 Stuart Easton, ISILON MSS Discovery Kawasaki

Bennetts British Superbike Championship