WINNING DEBUT FOR LEWIS’ NEW BIKE
WINNING DEBUT FOR LEWIS’ NEW BIKE
Norfolk supermoto racer Lewis Cornish gave his new CRT-Motodroms TM450-SMX race bike a dream debut at the Baltic Championships by taking victories on day one at Circuit Madona followed by much of the same on day two at Circuit 333 Riga. The extremely tough Latvian tracks were clearly to Lewis' tastes as he powered his new 'stock' TM450 from pole position to the top step of the podium on both days. It was a perfect and almost flawless ride against top International competitors aboard the 2015 machine which proved to be very much to Cornish's liking. With little or no time for preparation for round six of the British 450 S1 Elite Championships at Teesside Raceway the CRT technicians made some suspension and braking changes. Qualifying didn't go as well as he hoped he took third spot in race one despite a fall whilst in second place in the dirt section, Lewis remounted and impressively made up places to ensure a front row place on the grid for race two. As the lights went out for race two the pack stormed onto the dirt section at 80mph and Lewis kept out of trouble to emerge in third place. He kept the pressure on and soon forced the rider ahead into a mistake and Lewis now chased after the leader but without a 'slipper' clutch in his near standard spec bike it was difficult to control particularly on the off-road sections. Despite this Cornish finished the race in runner up place. In the short time before races the CRT technicians managed to remove the 'slipper' clutch from the spare bike and install it in the 2015 machine. Going into the final race, once again Lewis had a good start but fell whilst trying to make a pass for the lead. Luckily for him the flag was 'red flagged' and stopped following an incident which saw the race restarted. Off the line of the restarted race and it soon emerged that the battle was between former GP riders Matt Winstanley, Chris Hodgson and Lewis. Hodgson made a couple of errors which saw him loose time to Lewis who was breathing down Winstanly's neck. Lap after lap Cornish looked as though he was lining up for a pass and on numerous occasions he had his wheel in front of his rival. As the laps wound down it seemed like Winstanley's 10 years of Grand Prix experience was going to be enough to hold off Lewis' multiple attempts to pass for the lead. With the last lap approaching young Cornish pulled off a simply amazing move going through the high speed chicane to go inside his rival and make the pass stick. With back markers in the way on the last lap Lewis needed to keep his cool and not be forced into any mistakes. With the checkered flag in sight Cornish kept the throttle wide open and took the race win ahead of Winstanley.This was enough to give Lewis second place on the overall podium and more importantly close the gap at the top of the Championship standings to a mere two points. With 105 points per championship round available and three rounds left Lewis is well aware of what he has to do to take the lead. After the podium presentations he said "I'm really pleased with the new bike so thanks to Motodroms for all of their support and the guys for getting the clutch fitted during the break. Considering the bike is straight out of the box its very impressive and once I'd bolted a few of my parts on it I can't complain about the handling, we just need a little more power from the motor and it will be very competitive. I'm pleased with how things went today and fitting the slipper clutch made it into a winner. I guess I was lucky with the race that was stopped but I've had so much bad luck this season it’s about time something went my way."
Lewis and his new bike in outstanding form at home and overseas.
Lewis Cornish closes in on the British Championship title
Lewis Cornish will have his next race at Aravete, Estonia at the end of the month closely followed by a return to the British Championships at the high speed Lydden Hill circuit in Kent. Keep up to date with Lewis and CRT Supermoto by clicking onto www.lewiscornish.co.uk and the CRT Supermoto page on Facebook.
