British Superbikes & Supersport‏

It was another mixed weekend for the Gearlink Kawasaki team at round three of the MCE British Superbike at the Snetterton 300 circuit. Ben Wilson struggled in the British Superbike class and was unfortunate to crash in race one but secured a point in 15th place in race two.

Ben had a few issues over the weekend setting up his Gearlink Kawasaki at the technical 3-mile circuit and lost out on valuable time during the practice sessions. He was able to get through the first Superpole session but ended up in 17th place on the grid for the opening MCE British Superbike race.

Ben gained a good start in the race but got tangled up with Michael Rutter on the opening lap and that was his race cut short. As he did not register a time he had to start race two from the back of the grid in 25th place, he had to dig deep and work extremely hard to push his way through to a well-earned points scoring position.

Ben Wilson - "I'm not going to lie, this season is proving to be very tough, we knew from the start it would be tough but we seemed to be hampered with various random problems that seem to hinder our progress. We are working hard in the opening sessions to try and get some Superbike data for each track but it is very difficult against such well-established and experienced teams. I hope we can start moving forward and getting some decent results."

Motorpoint British Supersport

In the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship Glenn Irwin rode two solid races to bring the Gearlink Kawasaki home in fifth and sixth place respectively. Glenn who was still recovering from a broken ankle sustained in a football game endured more pain after a huge crash in qualifying where the bike landed on his hip. He gritted his teeth to ride two very good and mature races and is now lying in third place in the Championship standings.

Luke Hedger sat out of this round at Snetterton after he crashed and broke his arm testing at Mallory a few weeks ago, he is hoping to be back and fit for Knockhill

Glenn Irwin - "It was a weekend of two halves, fifth and sixth are good scores considering my physical condition this weekend but we clearly saw today that we must develop the Kawasaki further to keep with the competition. I felt strong everywhere to get demoralised every lap down both of the long straights, this doesn't reflect how good the team are and how hard they are working to help me, I know we can make things much better."

Team Manager Michael de Bidaph - "This weekend was quite frustrating in both the Superbike class and Supersport. I know Glenn will be frustrated with this weekend as he is really working hard to ensure he gets good results for himself and the team and this is very clear to see. We are lacking in speed on the Kawasaki and it was difficult here with such long straights, last year we had the top end power over the Triumphs and this year they have made further developments and we have not and this needs to be addressed. Glenn rode two fantastic races considering the pain he was suffering and we will be looking into further developing the Supersport bikes.

In the Superbike class we had a number of minor problems in the practice sessions and even though we were able to sort them it lessened the time that we had out on track to find the perfect set up. With the crash in race one, we were also lacking in vital race set up for the second race and even though he worked his way through the pack we would certainly like to be running in a top ten position at the races.

I must thank Colin Peabody at Performance Parts for his assistance this weekend, he was a huge help."

2014 GEARLINK TEAM SPONSORS

AKRAPOVIC - B & C EXPRESS - CN TRADING (GLENN) - DAYTONA (BEN) - DAMEN LEATHERS - DBR - GALFER - GB RACING - GEARLINK LTD - GOODRIDGE - JAMES JAMIESON CONSTRUCTION (GLENN) - JOHNY WILLS PHOTOGRAPHY - K-TECH - MARK TALBOT (GLENN) - MEGASTORE247 (GLENN) - MET HEALTHCARE (GLENN) - MWR AIR FILTERS - NGK SPARK PLUGS - OCTANORM - PERFORMANCE PARTS - PERFORMANCE FRICTION BRAKES - PRO CLEAN - PRO-BOLT - R & G RACING - RENTHAL - ROCK OIL - SAMCO SPORT - SHARK HELMETS - SHOEI HELMETS (LUKE) - SIDI (LUKE) - SIGMA PERFORMANCE - SINNIS - SKIDMARX - SOLO SIGNS - TIM TODD SURFACING - TSUBAKI - VALE LIVESTOCK - WWW.1STCHOICE-FLOORING.CO.UK (LUKE)