Donington Park - Round 4

It was a mixed weekend for the Idaq Motorsport team this weekend at Donington Park, running alongside the World Superbike Championship the Idaq Kawasaki riders were all troubled with arm pump issues throughout qualifying and the race.

The three riders Peter Ward, James East and Paul Curran opted out of the sessions on Friday due to the horrendous weather. This only left them with one session on the Saturday which was qualifying and all three had to work hard in a short period of time to get a good set up and put in a quick lap time.Ward qualified in sixth, Curran in 19th and East in 24th.

In the race Ward had a bad start and fell back to 12th after the opening lap and fighting hard with the bike he tried to work his way back through but early on in the race his arms started to pump up and he was struggling to hold on as he crossed the finish line in 11th.

Peter Ward - "I'm just so frustrated with my arm issues as I've never had it like I've had it here and at Oulton Park and it just seems to be getting worse. I got a bad start which annoyed me then I knew I had my work cut out to try and fight my way back through the field and I guess that altered the way I was riding also but I could hardly hold on come the end of the race and dropped back so many places. I'm not sure what I can do to get it fixed but I'm going to look into a few things tomorrow and try and resolve the problem. It is just very annoying because the bike is great so are the team and I know I have the pace to run up near the front but this is just preventing me doing anything."

James East once again was the one battling hard to earn himself another points scoring position. An old knee injury flared up this weekend and forced him to alter his riding style during qualifying and he like Peter suffered from bad arm pump which prevented him putting in a good lap time during qualifying which put him in 24th place on the grid. Fighting hard the youngster got his head down and worked hard making some strong and confident passes and putting in some great lap times.

James East - "Saturday was a nightmare, my arms were so bad in qualifying I thought I was gripping on but I actually wasn't. I've been working really hard on my fitness in my core and legs over the last few weeks and I knew today I had to put this into practice. I told myself I had to relax and put the focus on changing the bike direction through my legs and core and this really helped with my arms. I got into a good rhythm and made some good passes. It's a real shame I was so far back in qualifying as I left myself a lot of work to do but this is only my fourth race on a 1000 and I have been consistent and getting points which I'm really happy with. The team have worked really hard for me and despite a couple of gearbox problems during the race I'm really happy with gaining 10 places to finish 14th from 24th. The race here has now given us a good set up for when we come back here in September."

Paul Curran was also troubled by arm pump issues and despite qualifying in 19th place he had problems during the race when a rider crashed straight in front of him and he had to come to a full halt to ensure not to run over the fallen rider and restarted in 25th position. Setting some strong lap times he was able to battle back though to finish in 18th.

Paul Curran - "It was such a nightmare race when I got caught up in the incident early on. I was trying so hard to avoid missing him that I had to come to a complete stop, when I got going again I'd lost so many places that I'd left myself so much work to do. I worked hard and my times were good but once again my arms flared up and I couldn't have done another race lap. Hopefully things will be better at Knockhill in a couple of weeks' time."

Team Principal Mark Roebuck - "We took a lot of gambles this weekend. The weather on Friday was pretty bad but the forecast for Saturday and Sunday was good so we decided it was not worth risking the riders in the poor track conditions for practice and qualifying 1, providing the forecast was right there was nothing to gain. Many other teams took part in sessions on Friday and regretted it at the end of the day. We went into qualifying 2 blind in terms of setup as our pre-season testing took place in totally different conditions but as a result of good pre-session planning we were able to give the riders every chance to get a good grid position. All riders qualified with very competitive times despite some arm pump issues. The race was a credit to all the team and the riders. It is not an easy task to run three bikes in the same race but everyone worked well together and this shows in the results that we have had as a new team, all riders in the top 20 in every race of the season so far. For Pete to finish in 11th with the arm pump he was dealing with is fantastic, James gaining 10 places shows just how much talent he has and for Paul to have to come to a total standstill during the race because of an incident in front of him and then still improve on his starting position is unbelievable."