Samsung Suzuki struggle at challenging Cadwell Park.

Dean Thomas aboard his Samsung Suzuki had a difficult race weekend at the undulating Cadwell Park, achieving a fourteenth place finish in race one and a DNF due to a slipping clutch in race two – not the result he had been hoping for.

The weekend got off to a bad start with a crash in third free practice which is just ahead of qualifying. “We had been struggling with too much feedback from the forks and losing a bit of rear grip. Each time we made an alteration to make the bike steer a little better we lost more grip, we changed it back to get the grip back but then the bike wouldn’t steer. We seemed to be stuck in a rut,” explained Thomas. 

The team made some changes which improved the situation however it didn’t work out well on track. “We made some changes and went a bit quicker. On the lap I crashed I was half a second up on that split alone. I pushed a bit hard I think and just turned into turn two, got to the middle of the turn the front chattered twice and then folded the front tyre,” he said.

The team had to work hard to ready Thomas’ number two machine for qualifying that afternoon. They spent a lot of time ironing out little problems during the single qualifying session which left them down the field in sixteenth place. 

Race one got off to a bad start due to a tyre issue as Thomas said, “We had a bit of an out-of-round front tyre which gave us even more chatter than we already had so it just hindered us. I got hung up with Simon Andrews when he was trying to move out of the road when his clutch was playing up. They just got away from me and to cut a long story short I finished in fourteenth place. It’s not a fantastic result; it is a result as it is in the points but it is not a great result.”

Things went from bad to worse during race two, “That one didn’t go to plan either! It hasn’t been a very good weekend really!” joked Thomas. “I got a good start and got away well, I was sitting on the back of Plater and Haydon and there was a small gap to Smart. I was just hanging on and doing really good lap times, best we had managed all weekend. The bike didn’t feel so bad and then the clutch went, it just started slipping eight laps into the race and that was that.”

He couldn’t believe his bad luck and did his utmost to nurse it home, “I persevered with it for a lap or two just to see whether it would make the distance or not and it wasn’t going to. So I decided to pull in then,” he concluded. 

Thomas and his Samsung Suzuki team are now putting Cadwell behind them and looking to Donington Park in a few weeks time. “I am looking forward to Donington; it should suit us a little bit better. I’m looking forward to the last two rounds to be fair. I think Donington will be better for us and I’m looking forward to it, it will be good to get out and get a result in the last two rounds.”

Round twelve of the Bennett British Superbike Championship will take place at Donington Park on the 21st – 23rd September.