Samsung battle on at Oulton Park

The Samsung Superbike team worked hard at Oulton Park with Dean Thomas on the Suzuki Superbike finishing race two in tenth place following a disappointing DNF in race one. Jon Kirkham on the Ducati Superstock bike came home in sixteenth place which he had to work hard for.

Thomas’ race one was ended prematurely when his rear shock lost a seal and sprayed his back tyre with oil. “Race one was not so good. It was only about six or seven laps into the race and all of a sudden I had a massive vibration from the back of the bike. At the time it felt like the wheel was falling off it was that bad. So I pulled over and had a look round and I could see oil all over my back wheel. I had actually burst a seal in the shock absorber. I’ve never had anything like that happen before and it just sprayed oil all over the place and the bad vibration was the shock just going crazy. So that was my race cut short.”

His second race was much better and it showed the potential of the Samsung Suzuki as Thomas did battle with Chris Walker on the current Rizla Suzuki. “We’ve been working hard on the Samsung Suzuki to get it to where we need it to be. I spent most of the race fighting with Chris Walker and we have a few little things we need to work on with the bike and it was obvious Chris does as well. It was good to have a battle with him so tenth place I can’t complain,” said Thomas.

Meanwhile on the other side of the garage Kirkham was struggling. He crashed in qualifying which didn’t aid his cause and left him in fifteenth on the grid. “I crashed in qualifying which pushed me down the grid and just made it all very hard work, “ he admitted, “The bike is down on straight line speed and that is where we are losing out. I mean I had to ride hard to finish sixteenth so that is not right. We need to regroup before Snetterton and make some changes.”

Snetterton requires a lot of top end speed with its long straights, so the Samsung team will be digging deep with the Ducati Superstock machine in the hope that they can move further up the pecking order.

The fifth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship and the Metzeler National Superstock Championship will take place on the 18th – 20th May at Snetterton.
Dean Thomas - Oulton Park

Jon Kirkham - Oulton Park