British Superbikes – Round 12 at Brands Hatch
To round up the season we headed down south to Kent for the final two races for the 2018 championship at Brands Hatch. The opening free practice session of the weekend provided damp conditions as the circuit slowly dried up from the previous night’s downpour. Kurt consistently ran comfortably within the top 10 with Matt in hot pursuit in the teens until the closing stages where it became a game of who pitted early enough to swap to dry tyres as the final handful of laps shifted the field around.
Both of the lads were on personal best form as they headed through FP2 chipping away at their lap times and making regular pit intervals to work with the pit crew and develop a better setting for the Sorrymate Racing R6. The final lap saw Kurt secure a lap time only 0.7 from the top 5 over the 2.4 mile long circuit.
Saturday brought an unusual sunny forecast for this time of year with a blue sky ready for the morning’s qualifying session. Overnight many changes were made to both bikes in a bid to keep pushing forward knowing that the times would drop. Kurt rose to the challenge and dropped his lap time by half a second below his FP2 and previous personal best lap time whilst Matt shaved 0.4 of a second from his, however, this was not quite enough to leave them satisfied with their grid positions so back to the drawing board over dinner to discuss the next steps forward.
Race one was at our feet in no time as we lined up on the grid. As the lights went out Matt began to bully his way through those around him as Kurt had a cracking start tagging onto the front pack just shy of that top 10 spot he is set on. Unfortunately the race was red flagged due to an incident elsewhere in the race which meant a restart from original grid positions. As the lights went out for the second time that day, Kurt got trapped on the inside of turn 1 due to unlucky track positioning causing him to lose momentum and drop back for the 8 lap dash. The closing stages of the race saw Kurt round up the points in 15th and Matt closely behind in 18th with yet again another faster lap of the weekend. We were gutted to say the least that the restart hindered our result but what more can be said, it’s all part of racing.
The closing race of the season went down with a storm in more ways than one. Not only did the heavens open but riders began to fall from the get go as the lights went out. Kurt took a modest approach to the race by settling into a rhythm to begin with and then pushing on as he caught up to the group in front making his way past several riders before hitting eject as he high sided exiting turn 4. Once his progressive tactic was ruled out, all eyes were on Matt who had a front row seat for Kurt’s crash almost running him over with another three bikes. Matt took the opposite approach to Kurt having already stormed forward past his twin brother and many others demonstrating some fantastic track craft and elbows out action during the opening stages. As we fast forward to the closing stages of the race Matt’s tactic also proved to fall short of being flawless as he suffered a much larger high side on the final lap exiting the race from P11.
Both riders walked it off as we completed the season on a crash fest after Kurt completed 7 races on the bounce without crashing out. Unfortunate ending but despite the tough season there have been plenty of highs with many sessions battling it out for the top 5 but just fell short in the races where it counts the most. I would like to take this time to thank everyone for reading our updates and supporting us along with every sponsor no matter how big or small, we couldn’t do it without you.
A special credit is due to the team who have grafted all year round and put in countless hours for the pride and mini victories achieved this season.
Our attention is now onto a winter of hard training to come fighting back in the new season bigger and better. 2018 out…
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