TOP TEN FOR COOPER ON BUILDBASE BMW DEBUT, STRONG WEEKEND FOR JACKSON

It was a mixed day for the Buildbase BMW Motorrad team under glorious sunshine at Cadwell Park for the eighth round of the 2015 MCE British Superbike championship.

Making his debut with the team, Richard Cooper charged to two top ten finishes despite having spent little time on the S1000RR since signing with the Hinckley-based squad just last week.

The Nottingham-based rider progressed from 12th on the grid to fight through to finish eighth, setting the seventh fastest lap time to secure a third-row start for the second race.

A strong start saw Cooper fighting for the top six spot, eventually crossing the line in a solid seventh to complete a fair points haul.

Lee Jackson enjoyed another strong weekend as his British Superbike apprenticeship continues. The 19 year old showed strong race pace at his home circuit. On his way to 12th place in race one he set the tenth fastest time meaning he’d start race two from the fourth row.

The Lincolnshire teenager was looking good as he became embroiled in the group fighting for ninth place before crossing the line to take eleventh, just missing out on the top ten.

Things were looking up for Ryuichi Kiyonari after morning warm-up with the three-times British Champion posting his best lap of the weekend to place fourth fastest.

However, it was never going to be easy starting from 20th on the grid and things were made worse when a mistake off the line saw him drop to the back of the pack. Nevertheless, he fought on hard to fight through the field, moving up to 14th by the time of the chequered flag.

Kiyonari and the team were confident of improving that in race two but a technical issue ruled out any progress. After initially trying to ride through the issue, he was forced to retire on lap six.

The Buildbase BMW team will return to action in two weeks’ time at Oulton Park.

Richard Cooper, 8th & 7th: “At the start of the weekend, genuinely, I thought ‘this is going to be difficult’, but what the team have done over three days is chip away bit by bit and that’s something that has given me confidence. It’s good to know that the team are there to back me up with a little bit of an idea, whether it’s the right or wrong decision and we’ve come away with two top ten results on our first time out on the bike.

“I think the guys appreciate it and we know it’s just the start of things. We can leave this weekend with a few things to think about and I’m pretty confident we can come back at Oulton Park even stronger.”

Lee Jackson, 12th & 11th: “I’m happy enough with two points finishes but a bit frustrated! Race one was good, I lost a few places early on which didn’t help but we clawed it back to 12th and set a decent lap time. I was really happy to qualify tenth for race two and our race pace was really good but I got a bit held up. Cadwell is a really tricky circuit so I’m fairly happy, I just think our pace was good enough for the top ten!”

Ryuichi Kiyonari: 14th, DNF: “Everything has gone wrong this weekend! It’s a shame as I like the circuit. After Brands and Thruxton I wanted to do well and on Friday everything felt a lot better. Then I crashed in FP3 and this did not help! Warm-up was really good this morning, I felt fast and our lap time was good so I thought race one would go well but I made a big mistake on the line and went way back! In race two we had some technical problems, which I tried to ride through but I came very close to crashing so I pulled in.

“I am happy because we know why we didn’t get the results this weekend so at Oulton Park things will hopefully get better!”

Steve Hicken, Team Manager: “Really impressed with Richard’s performance this weekend. It was all very much in at the deep end and he’s turned up and got two top ten finishes first time out on the bike. There’s a lot more to come from both him and the bike so we’re looking forward to the next round.

“Lee’s had another good weekend, each time he’s chipping away and getting stronger and stronger. He set some really impressive lap times today.

“Unfortunately things haven’t been great for Kiyo, the crash in FP3 knocked us back quite a bit. Warm up was really good and we felt good ahead of the race but a mistake at the start made his life quite difficult and then in race two a technical issue ended our race early. We did make progress this weekend, quite a lot of progress so we’re confident of further improvement at Oulton.”

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