The Bennetts Suzuki team signed off the 2017 MCE British Superbike championship season with another race win for Richard Cooper in the Superstock 1000 class, as he narrowly missed out on the championship crown racing the all-new GSX-R1000 in its debut season.
Cooper was also standing in for the injured Taylor Mackenzie in the Superbike class, and took a brace of top-10 finishes from the weekend's three races, retiring out of race two early - and from another potential top-10 - to ensure he was on the grid for his final Superstock outing of the season. His teammate, Sylvain Guintoli, recovered from a crash in yesterday's race to come from the back of the grid to take two points-scoring finishes to cap off the year.
Racing the all-new GSX-R1000 this season, the Bennetts Suzuki team was quickly up to speed in the highly competitive Superstock 1000 class, winning at the first round of the year at Donington Park. Cooper arrived at the final round 15 points adrift of the championship title, and did his part by winning the race, leading from start to finish. His title rival, Danny Buchan, finished second, to take the championship by 10 points.
In the Superbike races, Cooper finished in 10th place in Saturday's race, while Guintoli suffered a fast crash on lap three at Clearways, losing the front on fluid dropped by another machine.
Cooper, racing in the same retro livery he used in his wildcard at Assen, was racing inside the top-10 in today's opening Superbike race, before pulling in. He then raced to another 10th in the final race.
Guintoli, coming from the back of the grid, came through the pack to finish 12th in today's first race, and followed it up with an 11th in the third and final race of the weekend.

Richard Cooper, "It's been a good weekend and a nice way to finish the season. Superstock was still the main focus, that was the championship I've been racing for this year. Today, I did what I needed to do but to be honest it was always going to need a lot of luck. In Superbike, I'm really happy with the performances to be fair. I was coming into a weekend where everyone else has done 12 rounds, and has already been to Brands Hatch before, so to get two top 10s is really good. It could have been three, but I pulled in ahead of the Superstock race. It was good for me but also it's given the team a lot of new data to work through over winter."

Steve Hicken, team manager, "It's been a solid weekend to finish a challenging year. As we keep saying, we always knew it was going to be a year of development - it always is with a brand new motorcycle. But we've made a lot of progress from day one to where we are today. In the GSX-R1000's debut year we've come within 10 points of the Superstock 1000 championship, and taken a win in the British Superbike championship, as well as plenty of other strong results.
"Today, we knew lifting the Superstock title was a long-shot, but Cooper did what he needed to and took another win. Then, to come in for only his second round on the Superbike and take two - what could have been three - top-10 finishes also shows the level he and the bike are at, and he's done a great job this weekend and given us lots more data to go away and work on over the winter.

Report and image courtesy of Hawk Racing.