Difficult Weekend for Be Wiser Kawasaki Team www.bewiserkawasaki.co.uk It was a very difficult weekend at the opening round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch for the Be Wiser Kawasaki Team. With the extreme British winter the Be Wiser team were unable to get out on track and do much testing, this sadly showed […]

Difficult Weekend for Be Wiser Kawasaki Team www.bewiserkawasaki.co.uk
It was a very difficult weekend at the opening round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch for the Be Wiser Kawasaki Team. With the extreme British winter the Be Wiser team were unable to get out on track and do much testing, this sadly showed at the first round at Brands Hatch when a couple of technical gremlins cropped up for the riders Nick Anderson, Josh Wainwright and Josh Day.

Most teams would use the winter test programme to iron out any problems with the bikes and for the Be Wiser Kawasaki team their first major test sessions were in the dry at Brands Hatch this weekend. With track temperatures near freezing on Friday it was hard to find a good set up on the Kawasaki’s. Josh Wainwright has made the step up to race the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R this season and in each session he was able to cut his lap times down, he eventually managed to qualify in 17th place in the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 class. Wainwright got a steady start in the race and was locked in a battle of around eight riders fighting for a points scoring position, sadly a mechanical problem forced him out of the race on lap five.

Josh Wainwright – “I was really enjoying this weekend and racing in the Stock 1000 class, it’s something new and a good challenge for me. The bike felt good during the qualifying sessions and I was really getting to grips with it and cutting my lap times. The Championship is so close only a second split the top 30 riders at the end of qualifying so I know it’s going to be a tough year but I’m prepared to work hard at it and keep chipping away and I know with the help of the Be Wiser Kawasaki team we will get there in the end.”

Josh Day struggled this weekend to find a good set up on his back and to settle back into a rhythm of racing and therefore he ended up in the shoot-out race on Saturday; he qualified in this and ended up in 36th on the grid for the main race. He got his head down and put some better lap times in during the race and ended up in 27th after the 24 laps.

Josh Day – “It was a really frustrating weekend for me at Brands; we’ve not been able to do much testing over the winter so we always knew coming here to the first round would be a struggle. I ended up in the shoot-out race and we were able to get a bit more track time and make a few more alterations but in the race we struggled again. We will be stripping the bike before Thruxton and I’m hoping to get out and do a test and try and get things moving forward and in the right direction.”

In the Pirelli National Superstock 600 class Nick Anderson is competing in his second year in the Championship and in one of the most competitive classes the youngster was finding his feet. He was making progress all weekend and took a second off his qualifying time during the race; he qualified in 28th position on the grid, 1.5 seconds off the front row riders. With a low grid position it was always going to be a difficult race but Nick got his head down and worked away and was able to make passes on a difficult track and moved his way up through the field to finish in 19th position.

Nick Anderson – “It was certainly a challenging weekend for us, we’ve had no dry testing due to the shocking British weather conditions and so Brands was really the first time out for me on the bike. I knew this weekend would be difficult as the class has some very quick riders and it’s a big field. Things did move forward though throughout the weekend and I managed to better my lap times every time I went out on track. I did feel really comfortable during the race and I know if I can get a better qualifying I will be up there in the points where I want to be. We’re hoping to get to Snetterton this weekend so hopefully it will stay dry there and we can get some more laps under our belt. It’s a long season and I just want to keep moving forward and learning.”

Team Owner/Manager Alan Grieg – “That certainly wasn’t the best weekend for us and not the start to the season we were hoping for. On the plus side all three riders stayed upright all weekend and there were no major problems which is good when we only have a short turn around between here and Thruxton this weekend.

We knew we’d be on the back foot going into Brands as we’ve not been able to get the riders out on a dry track with the weather we’ve had in the UK. The expense to take everything to Spain just gets too much and it’s just been unfortunate the weather has been so bad here. Normally during testing sessions you would get an idea of where you are with the bikes and any problems that should occur would normally occur during testing so without this we’ve found the problems have occurred this weekend and it’s just really disappointing after the work that has gone in over the winter.

Both Nick and Josh (Wainwright) consistently improved their times throughout the weekend in every session and now know what they are facing this season and the amount of work that will have to go in. It was a shame to see Josh (Day) in the shoot-out race as we know he is capable of more than that and we want all our riders aiming for the points this season.

We have to take this weekend at Brands and look at it as a testing weekend; we now have some data and know what we need to do with the Kawasaki’s. We want to move forward and go into Thruxton feeling positive and aim for better results. I’m hoping all of the riders will be able to get out this week and get some more track time and feedback for us.”

2013 Sponsors
100% Suspension – Activ 8 – Anglia Interiors – B&C Express – Be Wiser Insurance – Bif Racing – Britool Expert – Cups Direct – Dickies – Eazi Grip – Foulger Transport – Garnell Nutrition – GR Race Graphics – GB Racing – HM Quickshifter – HM Racing – Kawasaki Motors UK – Lincoln University – Maxon Performance – No Limits Track Days – PR Trackbike Hire – Samco – Sani Clad – Tanker & General – The Shires Inn – Venhill