It was a much more confident and positive weekend for the Be Wiser Kawasaki Team at the super-fast Thruxton Circuit. In the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 class riders Josh Day scored a Championship point in 15th place and Josh Wainwright was in 17th. In the National Superstock 600 class the Be Wiser Kawasaki rider on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R gained a stunning fifth place.
In the Superstock 600 class Nick Anderson was having a great weekend building on his confidence and drastically improved his lap times on each session. He managed to put in a good time during qualifying and was eighth on the grid for the 14-lap race. He got a good start but the safety car was deployed on the opening lap due to a bike fire. The car was out for five laps and this bunched the pack together, Nick got his head down on the restart and he was soon locked in an eight bike battle for third place. He moved up to third at one point and then got slip streamed down the back straight. It was a fraught battle but he rode a very confident race and finished fifth.
Nick Anderson - "I'm so pleased with the result today, it was hard at Brands and I felt like I'd be thrown in at the deep end a little bit so to come here and qualify and race well is a real confidence boast. It's a really competitive Championship and you really have to be on the ball out there. I was disappointed after Brands but to come here and finish fifth is great. The Be Wiser Kawasaki was awesome all weekend and I'd like to thank the team for all their hard work. I now know what I have to do and I am prepared to work hard and try and get some more good results. I can't wait to get to Oulton Park now and get back out there."
In the Superstock 1000 class the team were on the back foot coming from Brands Hatch and they were eager to improve on their results. Both Josh Wainwright and Josh Day had a good qualifying session but with the heavy rain on Saturday vital track time was missed. Josh Wainwright qualified well in 14th with Josh Day in 20th. Wainwright got a bad start and dropped back down the pack and was sat in 20th after lap three leaving himself a lot of work to do. He was soon running with team-mate Day and the pair battled their way through the close fought pack of riders. They continued to swap paint work throughout the race but Josh Day managed to get 15th and Wainwright was unfortunate to miss out on the points in 17th, the race was red flagged on lap 10 due to an incident.
Josh Day - "I'm really happy with how things have gone today at Thruxton and it's certainly a step forward in the right direction. I am still struggling a little bit to get a set up that suits me but we have made massive progress and certainly moving in the right direction. I know I have to be a little more aggressive in the opening laps or you risk getting beaten up and losing places into the opening few corners. I got a little held up in places but my pace seemed really good and I was able to run some good lap times. The Be Wiser Kawasaki team worked really hard for me this weekend and some of the mechanics had some really late nights trying to get things sorted for me and I really appreciate all the effort they have put in for me. I'd like to get out and do a bit more dry testing before we go to Oulton Park in a few weeks' time, I just need a bit more bike time and get some more dry laps under my belt to keep moving forward."
Josh Wainwright - "I was a bit disappointed as I managed to qualify really well but I made a real mess of my start and it felt like half the grid came passed me and I was still sat there. I just didn't rev it as hard as I should do and didn't get off the line at all. I knew I had a lot of work to do to try and get back to my starting position and round here it's so hard. I'm kicking myself really as all weekend I felt really happy and I was pleased with where I qualified for the race, I had a mega pace in the race and my times were good. The Be Wiser Kawasaki is brilliant, it's a shame the race was cut short and red flagged as I might have been able to push for a points scoring position if I had a few more laps."
Team Owner/Manager Alan Grieg - "After a disappointing weekend at Brands Hatch we came to Thruxton this weekend knowing that we had to be better and improve from what happened there. The weather conditions once again played against us and deprived us of some much needed track time.
It was nerve wracking watching the two Josh's' swapping paint work and I was just hoping they weren't going to do anything too daft. Josh Wainwright really struggled with his start so that is something we really need to work on to improve and move forward as he qualified really well and this let him down and cost him some points.
I think if the race had run the full distance we had every chance of having both riders scoring points from this weekend but we know where we need to be with the bikes now and are feeling happy moving on to Oulton Park in a few weeks' time.
I'm really pleased for Nick it's a huge improvement and showed us what he is capable of, he rode well all weekend and qualified well. His race was fantastic and he showed he can battle with them, pass and improve his lap times and these are certainly qualities that will move him forward and it would be nice to see him in that podium position. It's built his confidence and now he knows where he needs to be and what he has to do to be there.
We are very happy with how this weekend went compared to Brands and it was good for us also as this is the local round for our main title sponsor Be Wiser."
2013 Sponsors
100% Suspension - Activ 8 - Anglia Interiors - B&C Express - Be Wiser Insurance - Bif Racing - Britool Expert - Cups Direct - Dickies - Eazi Grip - Foulger Transport - Garnell Nutrition - GR Race Graphics - GB Racing - HM Quickshifter - HM Racing - Kawasaki Motors UK - Lincoln University - Maxon Performance - No Limits Track Days - PR Trackbike Hire - Samco - Sani Clad - Tanker & General - The Shires Inn - Venhill
