Daniel Cooper

Friday – it rained all day on Friday and it was the first time out for us on the new 07 Honda. I found that the suspension settings we had were too hard and we made a lot of changes for the second session and I ended the day in 11th place with a best time 1.56.68. I was pretty pleased with how the day went and looking forward to the rest of the weekend.
 
Saturday – It’s the first time in a long while that I woke up and saw that it was actually dry outside. This meant it was my first time on the new bike in the dry, in the first session we struggled to get the suspension set up on the dry track and had a few problems with the slipper clutch.  For the second session we changed the springs in the forks and adjusted the clutch, the bike was definitely better but not 100 percent. I managed to put in a best time of 1.43.1 and qualified 22nd on the grid. I wasn’t overly happy with my position on the grid but was looking forward to the race and was kind of hoping that it would be wet.
 
Sunday- As I went to the race truck in the morning it started raining, which I was secretly pleased about as I knew we would have a good chance of a good result if it was wet.  In warm up my visor was holding water and couldn’t see anything but was still 13th fastest and was feeling confident as we headed for the race.
 
In the race I got a good start and gained seven places on the first lap, then I settled down a little, putting in consistently fast times to pull myself up through the field to get to eighth place - just missing out on seventh on the line.  I am pleased with result but shows how important qualifying is, because if we were further up the grid, I felt I could have run with the front boys, as I was doing near enough the same times as them. Overall it was a good weekend as it was always going to be hard with riding the new bikes for the first time at Oulton. Just wait until we got a few races under our belt!  I would like to thank Centurion Racing for producing the new bikes, which is going to be the key to a good second half to the season. Thanks to all the mechanics especially Alan and Paul on what was a hard weekend.  Happy birthday to Lucy ‘lofty’ Jones!
 
thanks
 
Dan #20

Friday - The first session on the Friday I used to get to know the track and the circuit and how it works riding a 600 round there. I ended up finishing the session in 21st place with a time of 53.2. The second session went quicker with a time of 52.8 but I only managed to get half the session completed due to problems with the rear shock.
 
Saturday – My first qualifying went well, and I went 0.8 faster than the day before with a time of 52.0, now 1.4 off of pole and feeling more confident that I could go faster in the second session.  In the second qualifying session I managed to go faster again doing a time of 51.6 which put me in 20th on the grid for the race, I was reasonably happy as I achieved my goal of doing a 51 second lap. I was looking forward to the race on Sunday.
 
Sunday – The warm up session went well and I ended up in 10th in the wet conditions and hoping for a wet race. On the grid, the bike wouldn’t start and had to start from pit lane, I managed to make up four places on first lap working my way up into the top 20th when the bike developed a problem which resulted in me having to pull in. It was not such a great weekend and I was hoping for a decent result but we have now tested the new 07 Honda at Croft, which was a success even though the weather was awful. I am now very much looking forward to Oulton Park and riding the new bike with the hope to get some better results. 
 
Once again I would like to say a big thank you to all the Centurion Team for a massive effort in what was a hard weekend, see you all at Oulton.

Coops # 20

Hi and welcome to my re-vamped site.   Here in the rider blog, I’ll be jotting down my thoughts through-out the season and you too, can leave your messages or comments.  Just click on the comments link below, to leave your message or you can always email me. 

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See you at Knockhill !

Cheers

Dan #20

Dan Cooper – # 20

As we went out for our first session of the weekend, the weather was not very good and the track was very wet. This meant that the session was going to be my first one in wet conditions on a 600, so it was going to be hard. I ended up finishing in 15th after the 40 minutes. I was pleased with this and was looking forward to the second session. The track was once again wet and the rain was falling for the second session, I was pleased in a way because it gave me more time to get used to riding in the rain. After the session I ended up sixth which I was really pleased with and was now looking forward to qualifying on Saturday.

When I woke up Saturday morning I saw that it was raining once again and was quite excited about this prospect as I felt comfortable on Friday. As we went out for our session the track started to dry and by the end of the session there was a dry line. I struggled to get the bikes suspension set up for these conditions and ended up provisionally qualifying in 23rd, which I was not happy with at all.

For the second qualifying session the track was the wettest it had been all weekend and I thought that in the session I wasn’t going to be able to improve on my qualifying position from the first session because the track conditions wouldn’t allow me to. I thought wrong, because I managed to go nearly two seconds faster, which meant I was fastest in the second qualifying session. That happen with only riding for the last 15 minutes of the session because Westy used my bike for the first half of the session, this time moved me up to moved up to 17th on the grid. I was fairly pleased with the days work and looking forward to the race.

Morning warm up was first session that we had all weekend where the track was completely dry, so it turned out to be more than just a warm up. I knew that I had to push hard in this session so we had a good setting for the race. I ended up finishing in 23rd after the 20 min warm up which didn’t worry me and I was looking forward to racing.

As the lights went out I got a really good start and ended the first lap in 10th place, after the halfway point a few riders had come back past me and I was in 15th when the race got stopped.

In the restart I got another good start and was in 12th after the first lap and was racing against some good and experienced riders. With about four laps to go I had a big slide coming out of the corner onto the back straight and a couple of riders came past me. I then couldn’t get back past them and ended up finishing the race in 15th position. I was fairly pleased with the result and the weekend as we always knew it was going to be a tough weekend.

My deepest sympathy goes out to all of Guys family and the Gearlink Kawasaki Team at such a sad time.

R.I.P Guy, gone but never forgotten.

Thanks

Dan #20

Just thought i would drop in to say, thank god we are racing again!! Its seems like ages since i last rode a bike!! Cant wait for this weekend!! Hopefully me and Westy will be able to get good results and then onto knockhill!! Maybe we should take the jet skiis just incase we have a repeat of last year!!! Haha Anyways, see you all in ireland!! n if you aint gona be there, remember its on tv!!
cya

Dan#20

When we arrived at Snetterton on Thursday I was confident we could make major improvements on the previous round at Oulton Park. I felt the bike and myself were going to suit this track, as my bike has been very good on speed all season.

After the first free practice session on Friday I ended up in 10th position which I was very pleased with as I has chosen the wrong tyre for the session and felt I was losing time because of this. The second session started just as good as I matched my time from the previous session on my first flying lap. Then on my second flying lap as I approached Coram Curve and a gust of wind caught my bike and the next thing I knew was that I was sliding down the tarmac at 100mph! I was very annoyed about this as we lost valuable track time but I was also quietly confident for the first qualifying session in the morning.

As we went out for first qualifying session it was still quite windy so I took it steady for the first lap or two, as I didn’t want any mishaps again! During the session I improved my lap times from Friday, finishing the session in 15th place and 1.5 seconds off of pole position which is the closest I have been.
 

When we arrived at Oulton Park I had my mind firmly set on improving on our last result at Silverstone, where we had a bit of bad luck. After our first two sessions on Saturday I was happy with how the day had gone and we were further up the order than what we had been at the previous rounds on the first day. I also couldn’t believe how much fun it was to ride a 600 around Oulton Park!

As I went out on track for my first qualifying session I was confident that I could improve my lap times and position on the grid. I did manage to improve on my lap times doing a 1 min 42.1 secs, but I slipped back to 21st on the grid, which I was a bit annoyed about. However, I did my time on race tyre where as some of the people infront of me had used a qualifying tyre.

Qualifying two for me was all about trying to get further up the grid for the race and if possible improve on my best qualifying position of 16th. This did not go to plan as the weather conditions weren’t as good as the first session so the lap times weren’t as quick. I did go two tenths of a second faster and ended up 16th in the session but overall I qualified 21st.

After finishing warm up in 16th position I was quietly confident we could finish in the points if I could get a good start in the race. My initial start was quiet good and I made a few positions up going into the first turn however I went down too many gears and lost all my momentum going down the Avenue. I finished the first lap outside the top 20, so I had some work to do. I decided to settle down and find my rhythm, which I did and I started to pick off the riders in front of me one-by-one. By half way through the race I had got to the front of our pack and was in 15th position. I then tried to pull away form the group but where I had got caught up with the other riders I lost a bit of rhythm and found I hard to pull away. With five laps to go two riders came past me so I tried to get back past them but I couldn’t quite do it. I ended up finishing the race in 17th place, which I was reasonably happy with as each weekend we are slowly getting closer to the front runners pace. I am now looking forward to Snetterton where I won my first ever British Championship race. Once again I would like to say thanks to all the Centurion squad for doing an excellent job all weekend.

Thanks

Dan #20

We went to Silverstone feeling quietly confident after a top ten result at the previous round at Thruxton. After Friday we were lying in 23rd position which I wasn’t particularly happy with as I had a few problems with the gearing.
 
As I woke up on Saturday morning I was feeling confident that I could improve on my performance from the day before.  I ended the first qualifying session in 22nd place again I wasn’t impressed with as I had improved my lap times but I hadn’t really moved much further up the grid.
 
Going into the second and final qualifying session I knew I had to be on the first four rows of the grid to be able to get a good result in the race on Sunday. Once again I took a big chunk of time off of my previous lap times and was lying 14th before I tried a qualifying tyre. 

I came into the pits and my mechanics put a qualifying tyre in the Centurion Honda. I went back out on the bike but unfortunately I was not quick enough on my warm up lap and I was not able to do a good lap on a qualifier. I managed to end the session in 16th place and that’s where I would start for the 18-lap race on Sunday

In morning warm up I took it reasonably steady as the track temperature was very low and wanted to be in good shape for the race.
 
As the lights went out I made a good start and gained a few places off the line but then I got boxed into the first corner.  I ended the first lap in 18th place and started working on making up places, once the safety car had gone in due to a crash at the last chicane,  my lap times were consistently low and I started catching my team mate, Westy. Who at that point was in a battle for 12th place, I felt confident I could catch them.  Unfortunately with six laps to go my tyres started losing grip as we had chosen a tyre which was too soft. I was caught by the riders behind me and ended the race in 21st position.  I was quite disappointed with the result but that’s racing and we will learn form the mistake, after all it is my first season in the Supersport Class! 

However, I am very much looking forward to  Oulton Park where I will be aiming to score more points!  I would like to thank all the Centurion Racing squad for the amount of effort they all put in every weekend.
 
Thanks and see you all at Oulton!!
 
Dan #20

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

British Supersport – Dan Cooper

We got to Brands Hatch with limited testing time under our belt due to my late signing with Centurion, but we were confident we could progress on getting to grips with the bike and the new class.

In every practice session and qualifying session through the weekend we were getting faster and faster and also moving up the grid where I eventually ending up in 20th place for the race. I also used a qualifying tyre for the first time ever, which gave me a bit more experience. Both the team and myself were pleased with the position considering the quality of riders both behind me and just in front of me, who all have a lot more experience than me in the 600 class.

I got a good start in the race and gained a few positions into the first corner however I felt I could of been a bit more aggressive into the first corner which would of put me higher up the order on the first lap. After eight laps i was in 17th place when the red flag came out due to a crash on the circuit. For the restart I started in 17th place and made sure I was more aggressive on the first lap and ended up 15th for a few laps. With a couple of laps left I managed to gain three more places and the race was cut short by one lap so I finished the race in 12th place, which I was very pleased with. Later in the day Martin Jessopp was excluded and I was moved up to 11th. I am now looking forward to Thruxton as it’s the team and my local circuit so I can’t wait to get out there again. I would just like to thank Gary, Paul and the rest of the team for making it a fantastic start to the season!

See you at Thruxton!!