CROFT
RACE REPORT
Once
again Ben Wilson has been thwarted by the weather, this time he
touched a white line in wet conditions on lap four of 14 in his
race at Croft on Sunday and crashed out of contention.
After
two consecutive races were abandoned in the Superstock class
because of the weather and then being unable to make the grid for
the Supersport race at Mallory Park last month it has been a while
since Wilson saw race action so the Boston racer was fired up and
raring to go in round eight if the 2007 Metzeler Racetec National
Superstock championship at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire on
Sunday.
Spending
much of the free practise session finding the right set up Ben
went out to claim 10th place in qualifying for a third
row start to Sunday’s encounter. But his grid position did not
reflect the effort put in, as there was just 1.106 seconds
separating him from pole.
As
the Superstock riders prepared for the start of their race the
rain began to fall, not heavily but enough to make tyre choice a
lottery. If the track remained wet then wets would be the correct
choice but if the rain stopped and the track dried out then dry
weather tyres were the order of the day.
Ben
left it until the last minute before taking the risk and going
with dry weather tyres in the hope that the rain would abate.
As
the race got underway Ben held his position and began to reel in
the riders ahead. By lap two he had made up ground and passed both
Jon Boy Lee and Jon Kirkham to move into eighth place being nicely
poised to move further ahead as the race wore on.
But
it all went wrong on lap four when he caught the white line, which
sent both him and the Windmill Suzuki skittling down the track.
Although
he managed to eventually get the machine struck up and remounted
he soon discovered the gear selector was bent and the bike not
handling as it should, leaving him no option but to pull into pit
lane to retire.
“I
took the gamble and as it turned out it would have been the right
way to go. I had already passed Kirkham who finished in second
place and I was not too far behind Marshall Neill who won the
race.
“I
just drifted out onto the white line at Sunny out and the bike
spat me off. The white line is lethal when wet and I paid the
price. But for that we could have been celebrating a win today.
Luckily the bike is not badly damaged and I am ok so we must
forget Croft and turn our attention to the next round at my local
circuit of Cadwell Park where I will be not only contesting the
Superstock race but also the Supersport on the Crescent
Performance Suzuki. I was supposed to have ridden it at Mallory
but of course I didn’t make the grid because of the weather.
Grid positions were decided on championship positions and as this
was a one off ride I had no points and was therefore excluded.”
With
this non-finish Ben drops a place in the title race to fifth place
on 77 points with five rounds remaining.
Report
by Helen Pask
Pic
credit - Turn One Photography
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