MaxMoto News. 28/03/05

National Superstock Pole and Podium

Easter weekend saw the first meeting of the 2005 British Superbike season and Craig Fitzpatrick turned a few heads by taking pole position in the National SuperStock championship, with third place in the race.

Here's his race report:

"First Race of the season, first race on my new Yamaha R1, I was excited to be starting my new season after a winter of lots of visits to the gym and staying off the pies! Although I had been out on media day on my new R1 at Donnington and was quickest in superstock on the day, I hadn't been able to do all that much pre-season testing thanks to our good old British weather! With Brands Hatch being such a short circuit I knew that the set up on the bike would have to be spot on as there was going to be no room for any error.

On Saturday I went out in the practice session and felt really good on the bike and put in the fastest times in the session. Sunday morning was my first qualifying session, I left the set up of the bike unchanged from practice and went out on a damp circuit, as the qualifying session progressed the circuit started to dry out and everyone's times were getting better, I went back out for the last 10 minutes and managed to qualify on pole for the first session.

By Sunday afternoon the circuit was completely dry I made some minor adjustments to the front end set up, my goal was to break the 48 second barrier, I managed to do this, securing pole position and breaking the lap record for Superstock by .25 of a second!

I was feeling very nervous on Monday morning in preparation for the race, the track temperature was higher than we expected, I made no adjustments to the bike. I started the race well and led for the first lap, Andy Tinsley came past me on the Buildbase Suzuki, I managed to stay with him for about 8 laps then I started to have a few traction problems coming out of clearways, Both Howie Mainwairing and Lee Jackson managed to get underneath me at Druids, I managed to get back in front of Lee Jackson at Druids on the next lap, following Howie Mainwairing, I noticed he seemed to be having similar trouble to me with his traction, I was biding my time behind him, and noticed that I was stronger than Howie at Druids, Graham Hill and Paddock, I was waiting to make my move on him then came up behind two back markers that slowed me down, which threw a spanner in the works! I managed to get through this, and got back up behind Howie, and was preparing to make my move on him, when the red flags came out due to debris on the circuit, because the race only had 4 more laps to go, they called the result of the race in the current positions, rather than have a restart, unfortunately it wasn't a second, but I was over the moon to have managed to qualify on pole, be on the podium in third place, on my new R1 on the first race of the season.

I finished the day 3rd in the championship, with 16 points."

Related Links: MaxMoto Racing | Craig Fitzpatrick

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