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Buildbase Suzuki heads to Thruxton for round seven of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, as the season tips past the halfway point.
Bradley Ray and Billy McConnell return after outings at the Suzuka 8-Hour, racing for the Yoshimura Suzuki and R2CL Suzuki teams respectively. Ray also enjoyed a positive test at Cadwell Park this week, to work on the setting of his GSX-R1000 and improve the front end feeling.
Richard Cooper, on the other Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R1000 superbike, heads to Thruxton confident after a strong outing last time out at Brands Hatch.
Bradley Ray, “Suzuka was a good experience, for sure. It was a shame we had the crash early on as I thought we could fight for the podium, but it was great to be involved with the Yoshimura team. My focus is firmly back on BSB now, and it was good to get out at Cadwell and spin some laps on my bike. At Brands we got a little bit lost in trying to fix our problem with front end feeling, and we worked on the chassis and geometry. Since then the guys have been working really hard back at base and the Cadwell test was really positive. We’ve revised our engine mapping which was just pushing me on into corners when I was trying to stop the bike and get it turned. We’ve made big improvements though, and we’ll keep working from FP1 at Thruxton and hopefully have two good races on Sunday.”
Richard Cooper, “We’ve been going in the right direction with our performances and our pace, certainly in recent rounds, and I think Brands Hatch showed that. We also improved our qualifying performance too which was an area we were working on. Thruxton is its own place though, and it can be tricky. A lot of it will come down to tyre life, I think we can be certain of that, and qualifying will be important. But we’ve been working well and if we can pick up where we left off from Brands, I’ll be happy.”
Billy McConnell, “I want to win this weekend to be honest, and get the championship back on track. We’ve had two crashes in two rounds which has cost us but we’re still well in the hunt, and a win this weekend would set us up well for the second half of the season. I like Thruxton; it’s a racers’ circuit and it’ll be about the last lap I’m sure, but tyre life will also play a part, so we’ll work during practice to try and manage grip. It’s also the place I hurt myself last year, so I want to come back and win. But we’ll see; the main aim is to recover ground in the championship and winning is the best way to do that.”
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