Eaton shines at Snetterton for Hydrex Honda

24-06-2009

Monday, 22 June 2009
Hydrex Honda’s Stuart Easton had another excellent weekend of racing in the British Superbike Championship, recording 2nd and 4th place finishes in the latest round at Snetterton. The Hawick rider had been strong throughout qualifying and lined up on the front row of the grid for the two races with a brilliant start in the first seeing him run at the front until three-quarters race distance. He eventually had to give best to current Championship leader Leon Camier on the 16th lap but he comfortably held on for second, his fifth podium of the season.

In the second race, another brilliant start saw him lead the field in the first few laps but a missed gear on the fourth lap saw him slip back to fourth and here he remained for the rest of the 20-lap race. The 33 points for the day, the second highest of the day, saw him strengthen his hold on third place in the Championship with 7 rounds of the series still remaining.

For team-mate Karl Harris it proved to be a tougher weekend. Caught out in qualifying by a late rain shower, the Sheffield rider had to start from an unfamiliar 11th on the grid and his first race was ruined when he got pushed wide onto the grass by another rider at the first corner. Despite dropping all the way back to outside the top twenty he regrouped strongly and had fought his way back up to a fine 8th at the chequered flag. In the second race he took ninth but the results did see him move up to fifth overall in the Championship.

Speaking afterwards, team manager Shaun Muir said: “I’m generally pretty happy with the results today and it’s been a good points haul for Stuart once more. I can’t fault his efforts at all and he does everything we ask of him so he just needs to stay patient and that elusive first win will come. We’re not sure what else we can do to get the win but it will come soon and today’s results have seen him strengthen his third place overall in the Championship.

“Karl is going through a bit of a lull at the moment and whilst he’s working really hard he just needs to push that little bit harder in the races. He can run almost identical lap times to the leading riders but he needs to do it consistently throughout the race and once he can do that, he’ll be back at the sharp end.”

“We have a very good electronics and bike package now and the only thing that’s holding us back is the lack of full factory Showa front forks that a couple of teams have. We’re using the kit forks that anyone can go out and buy and we have to keep reminding ourselves that we’re a privateer team and don’t have access to some of the equipment the factory teams have. We’ll keep persevering though and, like I say, I’m confident that the win we so desperately want will come sooner rather than later.”