Gavin Littlewood's Race Reports
Knockhill Round
Top ten for Gavin Littlewood at Knockhill
Leeds based Superstock Cup racer Gavin Littlewood stormed to a blistering tenth place at Knockhill in Scotland for round six of the Metzeler Racetec National Superstock Cup. Gavin started from thirteenth place on the grid but quickly worked his way up to ninth place and was as high as eighth on lap three on his RNR Coatings Suzuki GSXR 1000. The safety car was deployed on lap five and this bunched up the whole field negating the gap Gavin had built up on the chasing pack. On lap seven the safety car came in and the race got back under way but Gavin's front tyre had overheated in the drying conditions and Gavin lost two places to move back to tenth position after an off track excursion. A further incident on lap ten saw another rider crash out in the wet conditions and his stationary motorcycle lay in a dangerous position at the Weir chicane prompting the race director to red flag the race after twelve of the scheduled eighteen laps. As the race had completed ¾ race distance it was declared a full result preventing Gavin the opportunity to make up further positions. Gavin now sits joint eighteenth in the championship standings and is confident of moving into the top fifteen at the next round at Oulton Park in two weeks time.
Gavin Littlewood: The race went really well. I didn't expect to finish were I did at a track I have never even seen before. I was running in eighth position and gaining on the riders in front. Then my front wet tyre went off in the drying conditions and I went over the grass losing me two places. Luckily I stayed on and finished tenth and lapped only half a second off the fastest lap of the race".
Oulton Park Round
Leeds based Superstock Cup racer Gavin Littlewood endured a frustrating weekend of racing at Outlon Park in Cheshire for round eight of the Bennetts British Superbike championship. During the first free practice the bike cut out before a lap had been completed and Gavin was to miss the rest of the session plus the first qualifying session whilst the team tried to find the fault with the bike.
The team burned the midnight oil and traced the problem to an electrical fault in time for Gavin to complete nine laps of the second qualifying session where he posted a time good enough to qualify for the race. Despite starting from row eight on the grid Gavin quickly moved himself up into the top twenty but due to a lack of set up time compared to the riders around him Gavin could progress no further and eventually finished a fighting nineteenth just ten seconds outside of a point scoring position.
Gavin Littlewood: I went out in free practice and the bike cut out at Island bend before I had even completed a lap. I missed the rest of practice and the first qualifying session but thanks to the hard work of the team I managed nine laps in the second qualifying session. I started from 32nd place and worked my way up to nineteenth but with no setup time I was soon struggling to make any further progress. Roll on Mallory where I aim to be back in the points!
