After a solid start at Brands Hatch where Ben had a 7th place finish he was looking to improve on that at Oulton Park in the second round of the Pirelli Superstock 600 series. The weekend started in a great way with Ben clocking a time of 1.41.329 in the warm up session just 0.269 of a second behind Kyle Ryde on the PacedayyZ Trackdays Yamaha, this continued into the qualifying where Ben had a 1.40.462 seconds which was .332 ahead of James Lodge on the Moto-Breakers Kawasaki in the first qualifying session and a quicker time of 1.40.363 in the second qualifying session .350 of James Collier on the Be Wiser Kawasaki. These two times gave Ben his first pole position ahead of Joe Collier and Benjamin Currie on the Moto-Breakers Kawasaki and with the pace he had been running at a great chance of gaining his first victory. Unfortunately the race didn't go to plan, with Ben pushing the pace and trying to get away from the rest of the field he took a corner a little too quick and unfortunately lost control putting him out of the race. Im sure Ben will learn from this and take it to the next round where he knows he has the pace to blow the filed away. The race was eventually won by Andy Reid on the FFX Yamaha with Joe Collier on the Be Wiser Kawasaki and James Lodge on the Moto-Breakers Kawasaki coming in second and third respectively.
Official News Release from Tsingtao WK Racing Kawasaki
April 24, 2014.....for immediate release
Thrills and spills at Brands Hatch – now Tyson and team ready to fight at Oulton
TSINGTAO WK Racing Kawasaki boss Dave Tyson has reflected on a weekend of extreme highs and lows at the opening round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship – and says his squad is ready to shake things up at the next round as they prepare to test tomorrow.
The team – which is the biggest squad in the BSB paddock this season – celebrated a lights-to-flag victory in the opening round of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship with Danny Buchan who dominated the weekend.
Buchan had looked in control all weekend, topping the timesheets in all free practice and qualifying sessions to take pole for Monday’s race. Getting the perfect start he led all the way, eventually winning by more than 3.5seconds to take the championship lead. The team’s second Superstock 1000 rider Kyle Wilks had a tougher day at the office, but battled on to cross the line 28th.
But the it wasn’t was the best start to the British Superbike Season for the team after BSB rider Jon Kirkham crashed on Sunday in the wet and was ruled unfit to qualify. The Derbyshire rider lined-up on the grid for Easter Monday’s first race, and rode to 21st place, but was still suffering from the spill the previous day and the team decided to pull out of the second race.
Over in the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship, roads man Dan Cooper impressed with two solid points finishes as he continues his preparation for the road racing season. Cooper took a 10th in Race One and a 14th in the second, in a very impressive return to short circuits after two years away.
In the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship, youngster Ben Godfrey had good start to his 2014 campaign, consistently running in the top eight during free practice and qualifying before qualifying eighth for Monday’s race where he finished seventh.
Dave Tyson said: “It’s been an up and down start, we had really great results with Danny Buchan, but these were balanced by the bad luck for Jon. But we can’t moan about it, we’ve got to move on.
“Danny was brilliant all weekend. He just went out there and did what he does best. He came under no pressure whatsoever in that race, it was his from the start and no-one could touch him. He did what we knew he could do, he controlled the race and he was full of confidence all weekend.
“Jon just got unlucky. He had that crash and suffered some concussion which stopped him qualifying. He went out and did Race One and used it as a bit of a test but we decided to pull him from the second and instead concentrate on looking ahead. We’re testing at Oulton this Friday so we can use that time to get back up to speed so he’s ready to come out fighting at the second round.
“In Supersport, Dan was very impressive. It’s two years since he’s raced on the short circuits and he’s riding the Supersport bike which we are running on the roads. He’s a very talented rider and these two results show just what he’s capable of. He’s going to be very strong when we get on the roads.”
“Ben had a good start, he was up there all weekend and we know there’s still a lot more to come from him and with Kyle we had a few issues but we know what we need to work on there and we’re making a few changes within the team to help his progress ready for Oulton Park.
“It was never going to be easy running five bikes across four classes but everyone has been working hard and we think we can make more progress at the test so we’re ready to fight at the next round.”
*The Tsingtao WK Racing Kawasaki team will be back out for Round Two of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park in Cheshire over the weekend May 3-5, 2014.
Ends.
Note for editors: Images of all five Tsingtao WK Racing Kawasaki riders in action at Brands Hatch attached. Please credit Jon Jessop Photography where possible. For high res images, to arrange interviews and all other media enquiries please contact Zoe Burn using the contact details below.
In the first round of the Pirelli Superstock 600 Ben made a solid start with his new Tsingtao team by finishing in 7 position. The weekend started well with some good testing before going out to put a time in ready for positions when it come to race time, Ben posted a time of 48.028 seconds in qualifying 1 session, this was good enough to earn him position 8 on the grid come race time only .543 off pole position. The race proved to be a tight affair with Ben battling well with the riders around and eventually coming home in 7th place making up a place and finishing only 2.966 seconds behind the eventual winner James Lodge who was also on a Kawasaki. His fastest lap came on lap 12 with a time 48.29 seconds which was only .405 of a second behind the fattest lap of 47.885 showing that Ben had made up .138 seconds over the weekend.
SICK UK have today become one of Bens latest sponsors. SICK are a worldwide company who last year become a billion euro company, a spokesperson for SICK said " We sponsored Ben last season when he was a rider for an independent team and when it was announced he would be riding for a paddock team we jumped at the chance to sponsor him"
Tsingtao Racing Kawasaki team have signed Ben Godfrey to launch an assault on the 2014 Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship.
Both the team and the 18-year-old from Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire, have their eyes firmly fixed on winning the 2014 championship as they both return for a second season in the fierce class.
On board the team’s Kawasaki ZX6R machine, Godfrey is confident he can build on his success towards the end of last season when he took the lap record at Donington and then celebrated a podium at Silverstone on his BMC Racing/Blinds4U Yamaha.
“My aim for 2014 is to win the championship, and I firmly believe that with the Tsingtao Racing Kawasaki team this will be possible,” he said. “I’m really, really happy to be joining them; the team line-up is very strong for next year and I can’t thank them enough for giving me this opportunity.
“The title is what I’m going for, I’m hoping that after the big steps forward we made in the final few rounds of 2013 that we’ll be in the perfect position to go out and fight at the front straight away.
“The whole team is chasing the same goal and I am relishing the opportunity to get out there with such a competitive package and strong team behind me.”
Team owner Dave Tyson is delighted with his second new signing in as many days. Godfrey’s arrival in the squad comes just a day after Tyson confirmed a two rider team for the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship with Kyle Wilks joining Danny Buchan.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Ben to the team, after a steady year in the Superstock 600 class in 2013 I believe he is perfectly poised for success in 2014,” he said. “Ben now has a year’s experience under his belt and we all think he will be pushing for podiums from Round One.
“We’re all looking forward to running bikes in both Pirelli National Superstock Championships next season – we have a two year plan for all of our riders.
“The idea is that Ben will have a good season in Superstock 600 and then move up to Superstock 1000 in 2015 where he will partner Kyle Wilks as Danny Buchan moves up to British Superbikes.
“This is our plan, we want to give the riders and the whole team some stability for the next couple of years and I believe we have found the perfect team to take us forward.”
*For more information about the Tsingtao Racing Kawasaki team visit the official website: www.hampshire-motorcycles.co.uk or follow the team via social media: Twitter @TsingtaoRacing and Facebook
Both the team and the 18-year-old from Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire, have their eyes firmly fixed on winning the 2014 championship as they both return for a second season in the fierce class.
On board the team’s Kawasaki ZX6R machine, Godfrey is confident he can build on his success towards the end of last season when he took the lap record at Donington and then celebrated a podium at Silverstone on his BMC Racing/Blinds4U Yamaha.
“My aim for 2014 is to win the championship, and I firmly believe that with the Tsingtao Racing Kawasaki team this will be possible,” he said. “I’m really, really happy to be joining them; the team line-up is very strong for next year and I can’t thank them enough for giving me this opportunity.
“The title is what I’m going for, I’m hoping that after the big steps forward we made in the final few rounds of 2013 that we’ll be in the perfect position to go out and fight at the front straight away.
“The whole team is chasing the same goal and I am relishing the opportunity to get out there with such a competitive package and strong team behind me.”
Team owner Dave Tyson is delighted with his second new signing in as many days. Godfrey’s arrival in the squad comes just a day after Tyson confirmed a two rider team for the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship with Kyle Wilks joining Danny Buchan.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Ben to the team, after a steady year in the Superstock 600 class in 2013 I believe he is perfectly poised for success in 2014,” he said. “Ben now has a year’s experience under his belt and we all think he will be pushing for podiums from Round One.
“We’re all looking forward to running bikes in both Pirelli National Superstock Championships next season – we have a two year plan for all of our riders.
“The idea is that Ben will have a good season in Superstock 600 and then move up to Superstock 1000 in 2015 where he will partner Kyle Wilks as Danny Buchan moves up to British Superbikes.
“This is our plan, we want to give the riders and the whole team some stability for the next couple of years and I believe we have found the perfect team to take us forward.”
*For more information about the Tsingtao Racing Kawasaki team visit the official website: www.hampshire-motorcycles.co.uk or follow the team via social media: Twitter @TsingtaoRacing and Facebook
New Sponsor
We are pleased to announce Sanco as a new sponsor for the 2013 season, please click on the Sanco image for the press release on the Sanco website
Silverstone update. Ben has gained his first podium finish of the season by finishing in 3rd position in the Silverstone. This was achieved after qualifying in second place behind 0.04 seconds behind Callan Cooper who himself finished in 2nd place behind Luke Hedger who is the current standings leader by 8 points.