BSB Round 3 SILVERSTONE

Fresh from his triumphant third place at Le Mans in the opening round of the World Endurance championship where he rode in the gruelling 24-hour race for Team Kawasaki France, Steve returned to domestic action at Silverstone where he contested round three of the 2007 Bennetts British Superbike championship for Team AIM Yamaha.

But things didn’t go so well for Steve who finished 19th in race one and retired from the second leg with a technical problem.

Steve began both races from a sixth row grid position and said: “We have discovered some problems with the bike over the weekend and have made a few changes to see if we can improve things. We are trying some new forks for the first race and will see if that makes a difference.”

Although his lap times improved Steve was unable to make much progress, coming through the field to complete the 20-laps in 19th place and he said: “The new forks were an improvement but we have other issues that we can’t sort out here at the track and these will be addressed during the next week. All we are worried about is getting the bike prepared for the North West 200 which takes place in less than two week’s time.”

As race two got underway Steve saw his lap times improve even further and by lap 14 he had moved up into 18th place. But as he began lap 14 the bike suffered a technical problem causing Steve to pull off and retire and the race to be red-flagged because of an oil spillage.

“I went faster again this time, we made some small changes which seemed to work but although my lap times were better I still need to shave another second from my times.

“I am off to Albacete in Spain next for the six-hour World Endurance race with Kawasaki France on Saturday before heading straight to Oulton Park for the next British Superbike round with AIM Yamaha on May Monday.”

Steve heads to Albacete on Thursday to prepare for free practise on Friday morning followed by qualifying on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. The race itself will get underway on Saturday evening at 6pm, finishing at midnight.

The 3.5k Spanish circuit, 160K to the west of Valencia is the only fully lit track outside Japan and is playing host to the second round of the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship.

The next round of the British Superbike championship is at Oulton Park in Cheshire where free practise begins on Saturday, qualifying on Sunday with the two 17-lap Superbike races due on track at 1pm and 4.15pm on Monday, May 9.

Full results from MST Sports Timing