Team Suzuki Europe drafted-in British Superbike Championship rider Victor Cox at the very last minute for the weekend’s fourth race in the 2015 Superstock 1000 Championship at Donington Park in the UK; and came away with positive data for the next round after finishing just outside the points yesterday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Cox, deputising for injured Nigel Walraven, only first stepped aboard the Hoegee Racing GSX-R1000 Suzuki an hour before the second practice session where he joined 2015 team rider Wayne Tessels. But his knowledge of the Donington circuit helped the team to set-up both Suzuki GSX-Rs Tech suspension and modifying the Yoshimura ECU by Hoegee Suzuki Tuning.
Cox qualified 20th and Wayne Tessels 21st position for the starting grid. In the race, both avoided an early crash ahead of them, Tessels resuming in 24th position and pushing the Suzuki and Pirelli tyres hard to gain positions and managing to get 15th position in sight; as Cox raced to 16th position.
Marc Hoegee – Team Manager:
“Despite the chaotic start to the event, I’m looking back on a very positive weekend. We made a lot of progress to get to the top 15 and points for the championship. This weekend we just missed those points, but in the upcoming races we can benefit from this weekend to get points. The team really did an excellent job, and especially the last-minute adjustments for Victor was hard work. I’m very proud and thankful for the tremendous teamwork!”
Victor Cox:
“I had a great start, coming from 20th to 16th. It’s a shame we just missed out on 15th and points, but I was so happy with how the weekend ended. The team did an amazing job getting the bike to work with me in the 30 minutes before the second practice session. Massive thanks to all the team members at Team Suzuki Europe; it was a great pleasure to ride for the team.”
Wayne Tessels:
“In all it was a positive weekend because we made really important steps. We had a difficult weekend at Imola and the beginning in Donington was hard, but eventually we managed to get 1.5-seconds quicker. The start of the race wasn’t very good, I got caught up in traffic and had to get off the throttle. Therefore I had to resume the race from 24th position, but got a good pace and worked my way to 15th position. Unfortunately my underarms started to get painful and that made me make some errors. We finished 17th but we found a good base to work on and I’m really looking forward to Portimao.”
This week Nigel Walraven’s physical situation will be evaluated and a surgeon will decide if operating is possible.
