 Brands Hatch SuperSport
October 1st 2006
Steve rode through to a fine eighth place in the first of the two scheduled British Supersport races at Brands Hatch on Sunday but was denied a second ride when the poor weather forced officials to cancel the final race of the season.
Steve has been drafted into the MSS Discovery Kawasaki British Supersport team to replace regular rider Pere Riba who had been called away to test for Kawasaki in Italy.
Steve spent much of the free practice time and qualifying getting the bike set up to suit his riding style most of which took place in wet conditions.
“I struggled a bit in the last session,” said Steve. “Every session we had been out in had been wet so to go out in final qualifying in dry conditions was a complete change for us. It’s a shame really as the forecast is for rain so my grid position doesn’t really tell the whole story. I havent ridden a Kawasaki or used Pirelli tyres for over five years so to just have 14 laps in the dry to get a qualifying time in was not ideal for me.
“Fortunately we have two races today so if it is dry we will use the first race as a test to get the set up and tyre choice right and let me get used to riding the bike in dry conditions before going into race two and go for a top result.”
 Steve started race one from a fourth row grid position in dry conditions and soon made his way through to 10th place. He then became embroiled in a three-way battle for position with Steven Neate and Martin Jessopp, spending much of the time heading the trio in seventh place, but Neate finally got the better of him and Steve crossed the finish line in eighth place just 0.3 of a second adrift.
Steve’s plans for glory in the final race came to an end when the rain hampered the meeting forcing officials to cancel the second Supersport race.
“I am naturally disappointed because we didn’t get the chance to go out for the second race. It would have been good to have ridden in the wet as we had the set up prepared for the rain. But with the Supersport championship already decided it was the obvious choice for the race officials to cancel the second race to save time after all the delays.”
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