Wigley Racing -Brands Hatch Report
Brands Hatch Indy was the third round of the British Superbike season which proved to be a great step forward for the team. We spent Fridays practice session developing our base settings for the bikes ready for the qualifying, Kurt had a strong session running within the top 10 but toward the final stages another rider almost experienced a high side on the exit of the final bend and shut off which resulted in Kurt running into the back of him and losing the front. He finished the session in 9th and Matt in 20th.
The team worked hard in order to repair the number 66 machine of Kurt in time for the first qualifying session which looking at the weather forecast appeared to be the session that would count as Saturday was predicted rain. From the word go, both riders started putting in faster and faster lap times running in the top 15. As the session closed out Kurt found himself in 8th position making up another place and Matt struggled to piece together his overall lap leaving him in 25th.
Fortunately for Matt, Saturday turned out to be a dry Qualifying session where he brought his lap time down by 0.6 of a second on lap 31 putting him on the grid in 19th. Kurt slowly watch his pit board fall down to P18 before deciding it was time to use the new rear tyre so that he could get the grip on the exit of the long last bend so after a swift pit stop he set out on a mission to improve his time which on lap 27 he went to 4th but fell to P6 at the closing stages. Matt was confident he could better his position in the race and work his way into the points and to start on the second row again foe Kurt was an excellent opportunity.
Sunday’s 11:30 race soon came around and after kurt got a short interview on the grid by the commentary the race was ready to begin. As the lights went out Kurt got a brilliant start shooting up the inside of the circuit before taking the first bend in 2nd place but more bad luck for the team arose as the race was red flagged due to a 5-man crash on turn 2 meaning a restart would commence and Kurt had to go back to 6th on the grid. For the second time the lights went out Kurt got blocked by a rider on the first row who knew what he was planning to try again which left him losing a couple of positions creating more hard work. Matt soon got stuck in with one eye on his pit bard watching his goal of finishing in the points get closer. Kurt also settled down and began putting in the consistent laps getting past the competitors that initially overtook him. At this point the leading group had gained a substantial gap from Kurt which he set on a mission of closing down. Within a few laps he was right on the back of the group and in the process set the fastest lap of the race which was only 0.01 of a second off the lap record. Kurt ended the race in 5th place crossing the line less than 0.3 of a second from 2nd. Matt battled his way up into a very respectable 10th position taking another handful of points putting him in 11th in the championship and Kurt closely behind in 12th by only 1 point.
It has been a brilliant weekend in the eyes of the team especially with a podium finish in reaching distance and almost setting a new lap record. We are now all getting ready for Donington Park at the World