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Close Print Finance BLDS Honda's Craig Fitzpatrick continued his consistent run
of form as the British Superbike Evo Championship visited Knockhill in Scotland
for Round 5. Fitzpatrick left Knockhill with another solid handful of
championship points after claiming 8th and 7th placed finishes.
The Close Print Finance Honda squad have undergone some personnel changes since
the last round, with Chief Technician Pete Clifford leaving the team.
During Friday and Saturday's free practice sessions, the Fife circuit was hit by
heavy rain, making track conditions treacherous. Throughout practice, the team
made continued improvements to the Honda Fireblade, enabling Fitzpatrick to
improve his lap times by a second.
As qualifying got underway, the track was still wet, but the rain had stopped.
Fitzpatrick used the early part of the session to try a few changes to the
set-up. With a dry line gradually beginning to appear, Fitzpatrick made the
switch to intermediate tyres.
Soon after making the switch however, Fitzpatrick was reminded of the dangers of
the white lines. He clipped the white line at the Chicane and ran off onto the
sodden grass. By the time he had managed to escape the mud, the tyres and bike
were covered. It took a number of laps to get the heat back into the tyres. With
only two chances to record a fast lap before the end of the session, Fitzpatrick
encounter traffic on both occasions and could only manage to finish 8th fastest.
Fitzpatrick took a gamble on a set-up for the opening race, with the track the
driest it had been all weekend. After losing a place at the start, Fitzpatrick
was soon back up into 8th. Having chosen a soft chassis set-up, he struggled to
push on any make further ground on those ahead. At the end of the thirty lap
race, Fitzpatrick crossed the line in 8th.
For race two, Fitzpatrick tried a stiffer setting. In the early laps, he was
able to make his way up into 5th. Unfortunately, the changes to the chassis had
made the Honda less stable in the harder braking sections of the lap, into
Clark's and the Hairpin. Fitzpatrick eventually took the chequered flag in 7th
place.
"It's been a positive weekend for us," stated Fitzpatrick after the race. "We
have scored more valuable points and we are continuing to make improvements to
the Close Print Finance BLDS Honda."
"I felt stronger this weekend than I have done so far this season. I obviously
could have done without running into the mud in qualifying, I just got caught
out on the white lines. I thought I was never going to get out of the mud."
"We hadn't had any dry track time before the first race, so we took a bit of a
gamble on a set-up. As it turned out, we were too conservative and ended up of
too soft a setting. The plan was to go stiffer for race two, but we were unable
to fit the front springs we wanted, and it ended up being even worse."
"I would like to thank Pete Clifford for the hard work he put in this year, but
unfortunately things haven't worked out as we had both hoped and we have agreed
to go our separate ways. The other boys, Johnny and Chris, have both stepped up
and continue to do a fantastic job working on the bike."
"We are looking forward to the next round at the new Snetterton 300 circuit.
Obviously it's a bit of an unknown, and none of us have raced there yet. It is a
great track now and it looks set to provide some exciting racing."
Fitzpatrick is 10th in the BSB Evo standings ahead of round 6 at Snetterton in two
weeks time. |
