Thruxton woes for Samsung Superbike team.

The Samsung Superbike team had a tough day at the office with only one race finish achieved out of three race starts. The mechanical gremlins were out in force for Dean Thomas on the Samsung Suzuki Superbike and his team-mate Jon Kirkham on the Samsung Ducati Superstock bike.

It started to go wrong for the team in qualifying when Bennetts British Superbike rider Thomas suffered an engine failure and then an electrical problem, although he still qualified in fourteenth place. “I couldn’t believe it, my engine blew in qualifying and then my spare bike developed an electrical fault so I only managed five laps! I just had time to put in one qualifier and set my time,” he said.  

Thomas finished race one in sixteenth position but it was a struggle due to tyre choice, “I picked the wrong tyre and ended up sixteenth. There were two options and I chose the one that I tested and felt most consistent on but it just wasn’t fast enough, I was comfy on it but not fast.”

Race two turned out to be a non starter and this time it was due to the clutch, “My clutch went, the bike just started to spin up on the second lap. We now know that each clutch only does two starts, but to be honest it has been a tough weekend on all the Suzukis. Chris Walker on the Rizla machine had similar problems.” 

Kirkham had similar luck to his team-mate as he explained, “My gearbox went during qualifying which was far from ideal. Then in the race I had a bad feeling from the front end of the bike. We had made some changes but obviously we went the wrong way with them. I felt there was no point in crashing so I pulled in. It is hard work trying to get the bike dialled in I just hope things go better for us at Silverstone. I’ve gone well there before; I’ve had good results in the past.”

The team are hoping to test before the next round at Silverstone as Thomas explains, “We are hoping to make some progress before Silverstone. The plan is to test at Oulton Park but the guys need to rebuild the bikes, so we will see where we are at and take it from there,” he concluded.

The next round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship and the Metzeler National Superstock will take place on the 27th – 29th April at Silverstone in Northants.