BEN WILSON – CROFT
Boston racer Ben
Wilson returned home empty handed from Croft in North Yorkshire where he was
competing in round 10 of the 2006 Bennetts British Superbike Championship. He
fell foul to the treacherous conditions and crashed in the first race and got a
bad start in the second race, which he finished in 18th place outside
the points.
Free practice
saw Ben begin his testing well and he held second place for a while. But as the
first session progressed and the action hotted up he was pushed back to 10th
place and then 15th. His lap times had steadily increased throughout
the session, his best time being 1m 22.9s.
He shaved a
further 1/10th of a second from this in the second session but with
less than a second covering the midfield places he dropped down to 18th.
The final free practice period saw Ben determined to move up the order and he
posted a time of 1m 21.83s shaving over a second from his previous time and
moving back up to 15th.
Ben made further
progress in qualifying where he ended the session in 13th place with
a time of 1m. 21.224s to be placed on the fourth row of the grid for the start
of Sunday’s two 20-lap races.
“I am a bit
disappointed with that time,” said Ben. “I had a big slide coming onto the
start and finish on one lap and all the sectors were the fastest I had done all
weekend so I would have been looking at a 1m 20s lap which would have been
enough to get me onto the third row.”
Ben made a
lightening start in the first race and moved straight up into eighth place but
it was all to end in disaster as he lost the back going into Jim Clark Esses and
pitched over the handlebars.
Race two was a
race to forget about. With the rain falling heavily the race was reduced to 18
laps and when the lights went out Ben got bogged down and was slow to get away.
He spent most of the race playing catch up and never really made any impression,
crossing the finish line in a lowly 18th place.
“The bike
wheel spun off the line and I just never really got going,” said Ben. “I
just want to forget all about this weekend and focus on the next race which is
at Cadwell over the Bank Holiday weekend.”
Report by Helen
Pask
Picture courtesy
of Turn One Photography
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