FIXI Crescent Suzuki's
Leon Camier produced his best ride of the season
so far in today's second race from the fifth
round of the World Superbike Championship at
Donington Park in England.
Camier was lucky
to escape a first corner crash - that cost him
some valuable time - and then got stuck behind
Eugene Laverty, before passing the Irishman
and chasing down the group in front. Camier
caught and passed Sylvain Guintoli and looked
to be heading for a comfortable, and impressive,
sixth before drama on the last corner saw the
BMWs of Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri collide.
This incident gave Camier the chance to take
an unexpected, but ultimately well deserved
fourth. His pace in the latter parts of the
race matched the front-runners and, but for
the avoiding action he had to take on the first
corner, he could have been right amongst the
battle for podium honours. Camier made it a
double of top-10 finishes today after bringing
his Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R home in a
hard-fought ninth in the first race.
Peter Hickman made
an impressive debut in the World Superbike Championship
by racing his FIXI Crescent Suzuki to ninth
place in race two. He made a good start and
was quickly up into a point-scoring position
from 19th on the grid, before catching and overtaking
more experienced riders on his way to 11th by
lap 19. Hickman rode hard for the remainder
of the race to preserve his place, before finally
bringing his machine home in ninth after the
last corner incident. Hickman's first race was
cut short by a small electrical issue that forced
him to pit early on, his crew were able to trace
the trouble and get him back on track, but he
was too many laps behind and finished the race
as not classified; although he did collect some
valuable data that will assist the team as it
moves forward.
Today's races were
held in dry, sunny, but windy conditions, with
track temperatures getting up to 18°C this
afternoon. The first race of the day was won
by Marco Melandri on a BMW, with Jonathan Rea
on a Honda taking the spoils in race two. Italian
Max Biaggi leads the Championship, with Tom
Sykes second and Rea in third.
FIXI Crescent Suzuki
will now head across the Atlantic for the sixth
round of the season as it travels to Miller
Park near Salt Lake City in the state of Utah
for the next race on Monday May 28th, where
the team hope they will be re-joined by John
Hopkins, who was forced to miss today's races
due to an injury he suffered last weekend at
Monza in Italy.
Leon Camier:
"I had the
pace this weekend to be with the top guys and
it felt good fighting and catching them today.
In race one, there was a problem with the brakes
and I couldn't get into the turns the way I
wanted and that prevented me from catching the
guys at the front. We changed to a softer rear
tyre for race two. My start was OK and if I
hadn't been held up for so long by Laverty and
Guintoli I'm sure I would've been challenging
for the podium at the end. It was a really enjoyable
race and great fun catching people and passing
them."
Peter Hickman:
"I had an
electrical problem in race one and had to pull
into the pits after just two laps. The guys
fixed it and I went out again, but by then I
had lost too much time to make any impact on
the top 15. Fortunately there were no problems
in race two and I was able to run consistently
fast and chip away at the people in front of
me one by one. My fastest lap was on lap 17
and I am really, really happy with how much
I've learnt this weekend - getting ninth today
was like a win for me! I would like to give
huge credit to the team for building such a
brilliant bike and working so hard to help me
this weekend and I would also like to say a
big thank you to everybody at FIXI Crescent
Suzuki for giving me this chance."
Jack Valentine
- Team Manager:
"We've had
a much better weekend here at Donington than
we have had recently and it's been good to see
some smiles returning to the garage. Leon rode
fantastically in the second race and could easily
have been challenging for the podium if he'd
have gotten away with the front group and not
been held up.
"Peter did
an excellent job for us this weekend. He came
in a last-minute replacement after we lost John
and he has done everything - and more - of what
was asked of him. His ninth place is a good
reward for him for his hard work.
"I would also
like to thank the whole crew who worked tirelessly
this weekend to give Leon and Peter bikes that
they could be competitive on. We will now go
to Miller in a positive frame of mind and hopefully
we'll Have John back with us."
Paul Denning - Team
Principal:
"This weekend
has been the strongest for the team since the
start of the season. The only blip was in race
one when Leon struggled with a combination of
braking problems and tyre choice, and Peter
had an electrical problem. An earth lead connector
broke, but the team fixed it and got him out
again, so that he could get some more laps under
his belt. Race two showed the true potential
of the FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R. For Leon
to finish just four seconds down on the race
winner after a difficult start is a fabulous
performance. Peter had to jump on to a completely
different spec machine to his BSB bike and learn
it quickly this weekend. To do that, make no
mistakes, run consistent lap times, whilst giving
us excellent technical feedback is extremely
impressive.
"The only
negative this weekend is that John wasn't here.
It's easy to speculate, but I'm sure he would've
been fighting for the podium in both races.
We're hoping for positive news from him in California
in the next couple of days, because a fit and
fired up John is capable of great things."
Donington
Superbike Race 1: 1. Marco Melandri
(BMW) 34'26.736: 2. Leon Haslam (BMW) 34'27.464:
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 34'28.345: 4. Jonathan
Rea (Honda) 34'28.555: 5. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
34'28.838. 9. Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki)
34'41.880. DNF: Peter Hickman (FIXI Crescent
Suzuki).
Donington
Superbike Race 2: 1. Jonathan Rea (Honda)
34'31.847: 2. Max Biaggi (Aprilia) 34'32.355:
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) 34'33.876: 4. Leon Camier
(FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 34'36.092: 5. Sylvain
Guintoli (Ducati) 34'38.442. 9. Peter Hickman
(FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 34'53.713.
World Championship
Classification (after 5 rounds): 1.
Biaggi 128.5: 2. Sykes 123.5: 3. Rea 108: 4.
Carlos Checa (Ducati) 105.5: 5. Melandri 97.5:
12. Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 34.5.
23. John Hopkins (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 8. 24.
Peter Hickman (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) 7.
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