The season so far...
Off the back of his first podium of the season at Knockhill, Karl Harris was full of confidence as the team made reached it’s home round of Cadwell Park. However, the spate of bad luck that has blighted the ‘Bomber’ throughout 2008 returned with a vengeance in the opening 18 lap Superbike race.
A new qualifying format greeted the riders for Round 9 at the picturesque Lincolnshire circuit. Adopting an F1-style Qualifying, three timed sessions whittled the grid down to the 20 fastest riders, then the 10 fastest who finally battled it out for the best time and final starting positions. Karl Harris qualified his Rob Mac Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 through to the final session with an eventual seventh grid position, heading up the fourth row on the three abreast grid format.
As the flag dropped for Race 1, Karl had a tough task ahead of him to get away with the leaders. In the opening laps the ‘Bomber’ was pushing hard to move up the race order when he lost the front end at the bottom of the infamous Mountain, bringing an abrupt end to his race and an injury to Karl's left hand that needed injections to ease the pain.
The brave Sheffield lad proved his true grit and determination as he lined up for the start of Race 2. With blood seeping through his left glove from the crushed left little finger, Harris joked to the television crew that it was only ‘a minor injury’. A good start put Karl in contention as he got away in 10th place quickly picking up places over the next few laps. With the front five pulling away from the remainder of the field, it was all Karl could to do to progress up to sixth place with a huge 3.5 second gap ahead of him. As he got his head down Harris banked his fastest lap of the race as he crossed the line having completed Lap 5.
Although he maintained his fast pace and race position for the next 5 laps, Karl was struck yet again by the bad luck that has blighted his season to date. Struggling with a dramatic loss of rear end grip, Karl visibly slowed on the track and lost over 4 seconds a lap, dropping places as his progress slipped through his hands. As the flag dropped Karl nursed his bike home to finish in a very frustrating tenth position, chalking up a handful of points to salvage his weekend.
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Omagh based Virgin Media Yamaha Supersport rider, BJ Toal, began his comeback at Cadwell after a broken wrist at Oulton Park put him out of action for two races. However, BJ struggled to get back to his true potential qualifying in a very uncharacteristic 20th position. With a lot of ground to make up to put his Yamaha into the points, BJ failed to make any real progress and tired quickly around the physically demanding Cadwell circuit to cross the line in 20th position with a very sore wrist at the end of the 14 lap race.
"That's not the kind of results that we are looking for.” Said BJ. “My wrist hasn't felt too bad through practice and qualifying but it has really shown in my results. I'm really sore now and need some more time to get it strong. I'll work on my fitness before Croft and hope to be back up in the mix of it all then."
Truck Links Yamaha rider, Joe Dickinson bounced back from his disappointment of Knockhill to score points for his Championship cause at Cadwell. Reliant on a good start from his fourth row qualifying position, Joe fought hard for the duration of the 14 lap race with TT Champion John McGuinness and a gaggle of Supersport regulars. It was all he could do to maintain his 13th placed position in the mammoth battle that ensued amongst the seasoned riders that surrounded him. The Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport race was shortened to a 14 lap race after an incident involving David Paton and James Dye that brought a race stoppage on the first lap. The race was re-run after a long interlude to enable James to be transferred from the circuit for further treatment.
With Croft a nominated test track for the Rob Mac Racing team, and the scene of Billy McConnell’s debut Supersport victory for the team in 2007, it is hoped that ‘Lady Luck’ will finally smile down on the team this weekend.
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