It was a tricky start for the MWR Kawasaki team at the opening round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch this weekend. Their best result came in the Pirelli National Superstock 600 class with Andrew Irwin who secured 10th place, James Mutton finished in 19th.

In the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship the two riders James Egan and Nicolas Grobler had a difficult weekend and the weather conditions played havoc with track time. With different elements needed to be tested during a dry session the team were unable to put this into play as the rain fell heavily on Sunday. In the wet session both riders set very good times but the dry times counted. This put both riders into the final shoot out race and each were unlucky not to get through to the main race with James finishing in 11th and Nicolas in 14th.

James Egan - "It has been a difficult for us in the MWR camp and we have not had much testing time to get the bike set up correctly. We ran out of dry time this weekend as I had some new things to try but the wet session put a stop to that. We found a good wet set up and we were running well in the wet but knew race day was set to be dry. I used this weekend as a test weekend and will hope that my season is kick started at Oulton Park in a few weeks time."

Nicolas Grobler - "This year is a huge learning year for me and riding for the MWR team, everything is new for me including all the circuits. Each one I will learn when I get to, I've only tested at Snetterton so far. I like it over here it's a new experience and new challenge for me. I've never ridden in the wet before so I was surprised to be able to do the fastest lap in the shoot-out race but it's a good sign that things should keep improving as the season progresses. I'd like to thank Mark at MWR for this opportunity plus my Dad and girlfriend for their support and Mum who is back home in South Africa. We are testing at Oulton Park next week then racing there the week after so I am really looking forward to that."

In the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship the MWR team struggled with the lack of dry testing but worked hard to ensure Andrew Irwin and James Mutton had a good set up for the race. Andrew qualified in 13th place on the grid and James in 28th. The race was action packed and a red flagged was shown after only two laps, this forced a full re-start. Both riders got off the line well with Andrew moving up to ninth and James to 21st. Andrew was locked in a six bike battle for ninth place and just missed out dropping to tenth on the line by 0.2 from Levi Day. James worked his way through the field and got up to 19th at the end of the 14-lap race.

Andrew Irwin - "It was a good positive start to the year for me and the MWR Kawasaki team and I have left the first round with some points in the bag which I am pretty pleased with. The MWR Team did a great job to get the bike set up right for the race and everyone worked really hard over the weekend so I'm looking forward to getting to Oulton and hopefully improving my results for the rest of the season."

James Mutton - "It was a tough weekend and we slowly made progress as the weekend went on and I was able to make up some places during the race after qualifying in 28th place. I managed to get a good set up for race day and made up nine places which I'm pleased with. I hope we can continue to make progress as the season goes on."