BSB Snetterton: Another entertaining day at the office for MSS Colchester Kawasaki
July 20, 2010 by Nigel Tasker
Filed under British Superbikes
MSS Colchester Kawasaki proved pulling together as a team means pulling together a strong points haul despite tough luck once again playing a role in their weekend’s work at their ‘home’ meeting
With a three race format in order for their ‘home’ race meeting at Snetterton, it was always going to be a busy weekend for the MSS Colchester Kawasaki squad this weekend. In the end though, even vastly experienced team manager Nick Morgan couldn’t believe quite how it all panned out.
With an additional race to fit into an already busy Saturday schedule (the re-scheduled race two from the previous round at Knockhill) the Snetterton meeting was held up further when some classic “British summer” weather and an issue with the track surface needed repairing. With both riders looking set to make it through to the final ‘Q3’ session in the Swan Combi Role for Pole strong grid positions looked on the cards. But it was only Gary Mason who got the chance to challenge for a top ten grid slot, where he eventually finished ninth, with Simon Andrews’ Kawasaki ZX-10R ruled him out at the ‘Q2’ stage due to an electrical problem with his bike. That left Simon down in 12th with some work to do for the races.
With the track surface repaired an additional 15 minute session was arranged to test the new surface and it was here Simon gave his crew an even tougher afternoon’s work by, in his words, “launching” his Kawasaki ZX-10R at the Bombhole.
That left the MSS Colchester Kawasaki team with just an hour and a half to rebuild his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R before the start of race 1 on Saturday afternoon. But with all hands on deck the team built Simon’s bike with just seconds to spare before the pit-lane closed. Race one’s results of eight and ninth for Simon and Gary respectively showed both riders clearly had the pace and the team went to bed exhausted but happy to have finished the day with strong points scores.
Sadly the troubles didn’t end when a sunny Sunday arrived! In fact they got a good deal more testing when first a fuel leak problem was spotted on Gary’s ZX-10R with just twenty minutes to go and then Simon’s bike was found to have a slight misfire, due to an O-ring failing on one of the fuel injectors, when they started it up to go out and form on the grid. Once again both mechanical issues were the trigger for some fast work from the MSS Colchester Kawasaki squad who proved themselves to be real professionals and worked with precision to get the bikes out and racing. With Gary’s bike fixed he was able to make it out on time but Simon was unlucky again, just missing the cut-off point for exiting the pits and had to start from the back of the grid.
Simon made up ground rapidly in the opening laps and was quickly battling with a pack of eight riders, headed by Gary at that point, for a top ten place. Gary’s race took a turn for the worse as a fuel problem caused his bike to lose power and he slipped down the order. Simon, despite working his tyres hard in the early laps, eventually snuck inside the top ten and brought his ZX-10R home as the leading Kawasaki and a hard fought ninth.
Race three (race two on Sunday) was a similar story for Gary who again had to do battle with slight machine issues. With an overheating engine keeping his feet just a little too warm he was happy to get the bike nursed home for a decent points finish inside the top ten and ninth overall. For Simon it was also a story of what might have been when his second row start, showing the strong race pace of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R superbike, helped him push through into fifth on the opening lap only for a missed gear to knock him right back down the order again. Simon was battling hard to make the places up but even the intervention of the safety car mid-race couldn’t repair the hard work his tyres had been put through. Despite that his sixth place finish was a strong result and certainly helped the team look back on a tough weekend with some pride.
Simon Andrews was relieved to make it through the eventful weekend and take his MSS Colchester Kawasaki to three hard-fought but healthy points scoring finishes at Snetterton, “Where do I start?! After I launched the bike during qualifying, with so little time before the first race I gave the boys a hard job to get the bike back together and it was amazing that they did such a good job and I could go out and get a top ten finish in that race.
I’m really glad we found the issue with the engine before we went out on the grid for the first Sunday race, it could so easily have been a DNF. I did well to get up from last on the grid to finish 8th. I then had high hopes for race three but the bike missed a gear and I went from fifth to 14th. From there I had to fight through and by the time the pace car came out I’d used the tyres.”
Gary Mason was counting his blessings after all three of his races were hampered by issues with his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, “I’ve got to say I’m happy with that because I got three race results with good points when it could have been a lot worse. But it’s frustrating because in every race we had problems; race one the tyre spun on the wheel, race two we had fuelling problems and I lost power and race three it was overheating and burning my feet. I’m just glad I got it home each race but it’s frustrating for everybody after working so hard and you can’t fault the effort all the boys have put in this weekend.”
Howie Mainwaring can call himself lucky to have escaped injury but unlucky to have fallen foul to such an easy mistake after clipping the back wheel of another rider in the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 race. Howie was making up places each lap from his tenth place grid spot when the slight error saw him clip the back wheel of James Hillier and his race was brought to a premature end for the second meeting in a row. “I’m really disappointed because the bike felt really good and I had high hopes for the race.” Said Howie after the race. “I’d done exactly the same move the lap before and pulled it off but the next lap round James just braked a little bit later and I clipped him. I’m gutted but we just have to forget about it and move onwards and upwards.”
As in previous meetings it was youngster Danny Buchan who grabbed the podium glory for the MSS Colchester Kawasaki team in the two National Superstock 600 races. A flying first place in the Saturday race was the result of a daring “lunge” on the penultimate lap which Danny held until the line for a well-deserved victory. The second outing for Danny and his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, in front of the large Sunday crowd, showed he had the right temperament to battle and bag third spot after a relative poor start.
“I’m really, really pleased with my results this weekend,” said Danny after the Sunday race. “The team have worked hard to get a little bit more from the bike since the last round and I’ve helped repay all their hard work here with two good results.”
Nick Morgan reflected on hard weekend for the MSS Colchester Kawasaki team, “The biggest thing to say about this weekend is how much of a team effort it has been. We were a couple of key members down but from the start there was a great feeling across the board. Then when it mattered, which at times it really did, everyone pulled in together and we showed what it means to bang out a result.
As for the race results there’s no doubt Danny set us up well again with his win and third place in the Superstock 600 races. He such a star for a 17 year old to get those race results and then be helping pack up the truck at the end of the meeting, it says a lot about the lad.
Howie’s weekend was tough for him because realistically we knew it was going to be hard for our bike at this track. He was just unlucky and has to pick himself up, dust himself off and come back strong at the next race.
The Superbike races were where the team showed its mettle though. What it showed is that this team can work hard under pressure to do a brilliant and precise professional job when it matters most and get a result when things are against them. I can’t say enough about them.
We know we can run better than that and with a bit of luck, we’ll be up where we should be.”
