Fitzpatrick Is Back On Track
Craig Fitzpatrick came away from round 7 of the British Superbike Evo
Championship with a 4th and a 5th placed finish at Snetterton. The Close Print
Finance Honda rider was on the pace all weekend and a solid points haul has put
his season right back on track.
Fitzpatrick had struggled with gearbox problems at the previous few rounds but
the team were confident they had resolved the issues since Mallory Park, two
weeks ago. The fix proved to be a success as Fitzpatrick went second fastest in
the opening free practice session. With some improvements to the set-up,
Fitzpatrick improved his best time during the second practice session, ending
third quickest.
On Saturday morning the rain came. A downpour during the first few minutes of
the final free practice session left the track wet. As the session went on, the
track continued to dry, resulting in wide spread of lap times. Fitzpatrick
didn't complete any laps on the dryer tract, leaving him well down the order.
Qualifying saw Fitzpatrick mixing it with
the factory superbike riders as he progressed to the second phase, as one of
only two Evo riders to do so. Fitzpatrick ended up as the second fastest Evo
rider on the grid, placing 19th overall.
In the opening race, Fitzpatrick was hampered by a front tyre problem from the beginning. The Pirelli tyre
was out of shape meaning that it unsettled the front of the Close Print Finance
Honda as it rotated. After slipping back to third on the opening lap,
Fitzpatrick battled to hold onto the last remaining podium step. Unfortunately,
by mid-race he had been forced to relinquish the place to championship leader
Hudson Kennaugh. Having built up a gap to those behind him, Fitzpatrick was able
to hold on and take the chequered flag in a solid fourth place.
With the tyre problems in the opening race, Fitzpatrick had slipped back down
the grid for race two. To compound the issue, Fitzpatrick didn't make the best
of starts and could only slot into fifth place on lap 1. By lap 6, he had made
his way back up into fourth position. As the race grew older, Fitzpatrick began
to suffer from a lack of rear grip, as the hot track conditions took their toll.
In pushing on towards the podium, Fitzpatrick was working the rear tyre hard and
the problem only worsened. Fitzpatrick eventually slipped back to fifth by the
end of the race.
Afterwards Fitzpatrick remarked: "We have had a good weekend and have definitely
made vast improvements from where we were a couple of weeks ago. I am a bit
disappointed that we were unable to turn our pace into podium finishes, but that
was just some bad luck."
"In the first race we got a dodgy tyre and that really put pay to our chances.
Then because the lap times were slower it dropped us down the grid for the
second race. I think I had the pace to make the podium in both races but I don't
know if I could have stayed with the front two."
"The Close Print Finance Honda team have all worked really hard to get the bike
back to where it should be since the problems we had early in the year. The guys
give their all for me every weekend and I would like to thank them for that."
"I am looking forward to going to Brands Hatch, hopefully we can be on the pace.
It's one of my favourite circuits so it would be nice to get a win."
Fitzpatrick has now moved back up into 9th place in the Evo championship and will
hope to return to the podium as the series moves to Brands Hatch in two weeks
time.
Sam Farrington
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