Ian Lowry had a good opening start to the MCE British Superbike Championship at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit riding the Padgetts Honda. Lowry has made a welcome return to the British Superbike Championship after a few rough years of results. He signed with Clive Padgetts team back in November and was eager to start fresh and regain his form from 2009 where he gained best British Superbike Rookie.
The Ulsterman had been running well all weekend on the Padgetts Honda on the Indy Circuit and completed over 100 laps over the race weekend in varying weather conditions, the team were testing everything to get the best out of the Honda and a good set up for the short Brands Hatch Circuit.
Superpole qualifying, Lowry was caught out in second qualifying and slipped out of the top ten and was 11th for the first scheduled 30 lap race. The conditions took a turn for the worse on Easter Monday and the heavens opened from early in the morning making the track conditions very tricky and difficult.
Ian knew the first few laps of the race were crucial and gained a steady start and was tenth after lap one, the safety car was deployed on the first lap after crashes at Paddock Hill and Graham Hill Bend, the car came in after lap four and the race was back on. Ian slowly worked his way through the field and steadily plugged away passing people and putting in some fast consistent lap times. The safety car was back out on lap 14 after a heavy crash into Paddock Hill, once this came back in Ian was sitting in sixth.
He was soon past Shakey and then Josh Brookes allowing Ian to slip through to fourth place on lap 24, it was a great opening result for the Irishman and he was eager to improve on this is race two, however due to a track inspection before race two after crashes in the Supersport race, BSB race two was forced to be cancelled after a combination of fuel, oil and rain called a stop to proceedings.
Ian Lowry - "It's been a great weekend and start to the season for me personally and I'm really pleased with the opening race result of fourth place with the Padgetts crew. We've worked hard all weekend and found a good set up for all weather conditions, I'm feeling really happy and confident about the rest of the season and hope I can get some more good results through the year and continue this progress. There is still a lot more to come from myself and the team and I can't wait now for the rest of the season."
