Brendan Roberts

www.brendan-roberts.com

It was a steady weekend for Brendan Roberts on the Buildbase 1098 Ducati at Donington Park. In the double barrelled round, Roberts scored a sixth and fifth respectively in the two Metzeler Racetec National Superstock races. After the cancellation of Knockhill due to adverse weather conditions a double-header was scheduled at the Grand Prix circuit.

A heavy downpour prior to the first qualifying session on Friday at Donington saw the young Australian sitting comfortably in second position behind Chris Burns, Saturday morning saw the weather clear and in the dry conditions Roberts placed the Buildbase Ducati on fifth place on the grid for the two races. A good start in the opening 12-lap race saw him hold his position into the first corner.

As he approached Redgate corner on the second lap he hit the trail of oil dust, which was used earlier in the day after a racer’s engine blew. Unable to turn comfortably on the dust he was forced to run into the gravel losing a number of places and putting him back to 17th place. After knuckling down he hunted his way through the pack setting lap times similar to that of the front runners. Finding ways past he made his way through to sixth position but was unable to catch the leaders in the short race.

The second race on Sunday was an extended race and was 16 laps, Roberts gained a poor start and was boxed into Redgate dropping a number of positions and was lying in tenth position by Hollywood, the second corner. Riding through the bunched pack he was able to regain his starting position, but the top four consisting of Kennaugh, Kirkham, Richards and his Buildbase team-mate John Laverty, had gained a healthy lead and he was forced to hold his position to the end.

A slightly disappointed Roberts said “I’ve given it my all this weekend and can’t say I got the results that I was hoping for. Donington is one of my favourite circuits yet we seemed to have a couple of issues that we were struggling with. The Ducati was handling great out of the corners but I was losing out on top end speed, which prevented me being able to catch and run with the front runners. I’m now lying in tenth position in the overall Championship which isn’t bad after only four rounds. I’m racing in Italy next weekend for the Ducati Xerox Junior Team then Magny Cours and then back for another double headed race at Brands before I fly home to Oz on the 21st October.”

Metzeler Racetec Superstock Results – Race 1

Kennaugh  Yamaha
Kirkham  Yamaha
Brogan   Honda
Richards  Yamaha
Wilson   Suzuki
Roberts  Buildbase Ducati

Metzeler Racetec Superstock Results – Race 2

Kennaugh  Yamaha
Kirkham  Yamaha
Richards  Yamaha
Laverty  Buildbase Ducati
Roberts  Buildbase Ducati
Brogan   Honda

-END-
Carly Rathmell
Freelance Sports PR
www.carlyrathmell.com
carlyrathmell@yahoo.co.uk

This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 11:06 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.