It was a consistent weekend for the Be Wiser Kawasaki team at round ten of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Assen Circuit in Holland. Danny Buchan secured a 10th and 12th place respectively. His team-mate, a former World Superbike race winner at Assen, Chris Walker gained a 17th and eighth place in the two races.
Danny has only once visited the Assen Circuit and therefore the weekend was a huge learning curve for the youngster to learn the very fast track quickly. He exceeded the teams' expectations during qualifying and ended up in the final qualifying session, lining up in sixth place for the first race on Sunday.
He got a bad start and got caught up with a couple of riders into turn one which dropped him down through the pack to 13th. He knuckled down and managed to make some good passes to get back to 10th place at the end of the 18-lap race.
Race two was a lottery with the weather and each time they all lined up on the grid to get started the heavens opened, drenching the track. Race Direction delayed the race for as long as possible to allow all weather to pass and the track to dry. They lined up again and once again it started raining and the race was declared wet. The majority of riders opted for full slick tyres as the Assen Circuit dries quickly.
Danny dropped back to 12th on the grid for race two and with the tricky conditions he dropped to 15th after lap one. Once again he fought hard over the cut distance race to finish in 12th position.
Chris Walker struggled over the weekend with a couple of technical issues and also to find a good set-up on the Be Wiser Kawasaki. Chris was unable to get through the first qualifying session and started the race from 21st position. He managed to get one of his fantastic starts and was 16th after the opening lap but he struggled with handling and had to settle for 17th place, just outside the points.
He moved up the grid for race two and started from 19th, the conditions played into the hands of Chris who feels confident with the bike moving around it the wet conditions. He got a blinding start and was 12th after lap one and was on the move. By lap two the Old but Gold rider was through to fifth and looked to be in a podium fighting position. As the track dried Chris was unable to match the pace of the front runners but still secured a solid eighth place finish.
Danny Buchan - "It was a tough weekend for me going to Assen as my track knowledge is very limited having only come here once before a few years ago. I was really happy with the way things were going throughout the weekend and my team helped me find a good set-up early on in the weekend which certainly was a huge help making me feel comfortable in my riding.
I enjoyed the weekend and although I would have liked to have finished a little higher up in the results I am pleased with two solid finishes. The track is great and it was fun to ride there this weekend. We had a really good qualifying session, I got a little tangled up in race one at the start but happy with my times.
I was a little weary in race two as wasn't sure how the bike would handle round here in the wet conditions. I felt like I had good pace and I was pleased really with how everything went. I am looking forward to getting back to a track I know in a couple of weeks."
Chris Walker - "It was a great end to the weekend! After a few technical issues in the limited dry track time throughout practice it made qualifying somewhat of a struggle. The boys worked on a setting and we made some changes to the bike overnight and went P6 in the wet warm-up session.
I managed to seriously improve my lap time in race one from qualifying and only the tyre spinning on the rim stopped us from making progress in the later stages of the race. Race two was a different story, in the sketchy conditions; I managed to come through from 19th place all the way through to fourth and only faded in the later stages to finish in a strong eighth. Stalker #OldButGold."
Alan Greig - Team Owner/Manager - "I'm really pleased with how the weekend has gone here in Assen for the Be Wiser Kawasaki team. This was only the second time Danny has come to Assen and so we had no expectations for him and he totally exceeded himself. His qualifying position was fantastic, he got involved in the melee of the first lap so he dropped some places but he worked hard to secure a top ten finish.
In the second race in the mixed conditions I think it was vital to have some track knowledge and this is where you could tell Danny struggled as he wasn't sure what the track would be like to ride in conditions like that. He still rode incredibly well to finish in 12th.
Chris struggled with a few issues on the bike and they were still trying to make changes for qualifying, hence the lower position on the grid. He did what he could in race one and was unlucky to miss out on the points. In race two you could see his experience shining though and he took advantage of the situation, at one point he was fighting for a potential podium finish. He rode a fantastic race in tricky conditions and we are really pleased with the eighth place he secured.
The AOS Be Wiser sidecar team had a solid weekend extending their lead in the Championship by 82.5 points. Ryan and Ricky lined up in second place on the grid against newly crowned World Champions. They got a fantastic start in race one and extended their lead on each lap, eventually winning the race by a massive 13.3 seconds. They made some changes for the second race with the gearing but they went the wrong way with this. They still were able to achieve another podium, their 13th of the season. A fantastic achievement and we congratulate them for all their efforts."
