The Moto-Breakers Kawasaki team had a successful weekend at the opening round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit this weekend. James Lodge racing in the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship secured the team's first podium of the season by gaining a confident third place, his team-mate Levi Day gained ninth in the race and Jonathan Lodge was 16th in the National Superstock 1000 race.
James Lodge who is competing in his second year in the Championship got his season off to a good start and managed to set consistent lap times throughout the weekend that put him in third place on the grid during the qualifying sessions. Young Australian Levi Day has a year of learning the UK circuits and put in a good performance during qualifying to put the Moto-Breakers Kawasaki in seventh place on the grid for the 22-lap race.
Levi got an awesome start and was through to third after the opening lap with James sat behind him in fourth. Levi fell back through the field and dropped back to 12th at one point before fighting back through to ninth at the finish. James rode a good and consistent race setting good lap times and moved through to third place by the end of the frantic race.
James Lodge - "It was a good weekend for me this weekend and I'm really pleased to get my first podium of the season and the season off to a strong start. I was struggling with arm pump a bit this weekend and it's something I've not had when I have been testing through the winter so we need to make some changes to the bike before Thruxton so I don't get it there as that's a hard circuit. I want to keep consistent this season and push hard all year and get good points."
Levi Day - "That was a tough day today, I got a mega start and was really pleased to be up near the sharp end but for some reason my visor started to steam up early on in the race. This didn't happen all weekend in practice or qualifying so not sure why it did in the race, I had to lift the visor slightly to get some air in so I could see but by that point I'd dropped back through the field. I managed to get back into a rhythm and work my way back through to ninth."
Jonathan Lodge made his debut race in the National Superstock 1000 class at Brands Hatch and having to learn and alter his riding style from a 600 machine did a good job. The 26-year-old from Holmfirth improved his times throughout the weekend and qualified in 18th place for the 24-lap race. He got a good start and made some good passes and was unlucky to miss out on the points.
Jonathan Lodge - "It's been a good weekend, I'm disappointed not to have got in the points at Brands but we definitely made some progress through the weekend and by the end of the race I felt really comfortable. It's hard adapting my riding style to the bigger bike but I really enjoyed riding the Moto-Breakers Kawasaki and really looking forward to getting to Thruxton next weekend and getting some more laps on the bike and hopefully get myself in the points."
