British Supersport Cup - Thruxton.
Dan Cooper
I arrived at Thruxton in a confident mood from the previous round at Brands Hatch, where I gained 11th place. However after the first day of practice at Thruxton I was in 26th position, which I wasn’t happy with but after working with my mechanics Alan and Paul, I was confident we would be further up the field as the weekend progressed.
After the first qualifying session on Saturday I was lying in 22nd, which was an improvement from the day before. However, I got stuck behind a slower rider who was on the racing line in the complex when I was on a qualifying tyre and this lost me a couple of places on the grid. For the final qualifying session we decided we would do a few more laps on the softer tyres to bring my lap times down again. This was a success as I took over one second off my lap times before I put in my qualifying tyre. With ten minutes of the session we used the qualifying tyre and I went out for a fast lap. I managed to make the tyre work well and knocked 0.6 of a second off my lap times and I finished the session in 14th and 16th on the grid for the race which I was pretty pleased about.
I was 15th in warm up on the Sunday morning and was feeling happy for the race. I got a good start and ended the first lap in 13th position. I was following Stuart Easton for the first couple of laps before another rider came past me and slowed me up which enabled Stuart to get away.
I then settled into the race battling with Sam Owens for 10th place, this lasted for the whole race with Sam and I changing positions every lap. In the end I managed to get the better of him and with two riders in front of me crashing out I finished the race in eighth place. I was really pleased with this result as in the past few years I have not done so well at this track. I would like to thank everyone at the Centurion Racing Team for making it a successful weekend and I am now looking forward to Silverstone, a track I thoroughly enjoy!
Thanks
Dan #20
