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Written by Nigel Jones on May 06, 2008 at 03:05
Chris Burns put in two, very determined, rides at Oulton Park over the Bank Holiday weekend to come away with 2nd and 3rd places in the Daily Star Superbike Cup races. These results move Chris and the STP Motortsport MV Agusta British Superbike team into 2nd place in the overall standings.
With free practice going extremely well over the weekend the team was hopeful of qualifying for the races in a strong position. Unfortunately, due to the mixed weather during qualifying Chris found himself in third place out of the Cup riders and 20th overall on the grid. While disappointed, the team knew the potential of the bike and rider and were confident ahead of Monday’s races.
However, when the first race was stopped due to rain Chris found himself in pit lane for the restart as the team had not had enough time to change the settings on the bike. Undeterred he fought his way through the pack, with both bike and rider showing their full potential in the wet conditions. Chris was consistently putting in the fastest laps of the Cup racers, finishing with the overall fastest lap of 1:49.219, some two seconds per lap quicker than Steve Mercer, the eventual winner of the Cup race. With not enough laps to make up the lost ground on Mercer, Chris had to settle for 2nd place (16th overall out of 31 starters, and just out of the points in the main championship).
With race two being dry STP Motorsport MV Agusta was looking to build on race one but a startline incident saw Chris, once again, having to fight from the back. With fastest lap following fastest lap (culminating in a fastest lap time of 1:39.446, again the fastest of the Cup teams) he pulled back the lost places to claim the last step of the podium.
With 56 points the MV Agusta is now placed second in the Daily Star Cup 29 points behind the Ducati of John Laverty.
Warwick Nowland, Team Manager:
“We are really pleased with the results from Oulton Park, which are a testament to the team that we are developing at STP Motorsport and the particular efforts of Chris Burns who is competing against some extremely well-funded teams on a bike that is little more than a superstock machine at present. Our problem in qualifying was down to a development in the braking system that left us with insufficient wheels and we had to make the tyre choice on the weather at the time, which left us without a front slick when the track dried. Problems like this are annoying but they are inevitable as we continue to develop the MV Agusta F4 1000 Superbike.
“The progress that we are making as a team is encouraging for everybody and the developments that will be in place by Donington Park will make a considerable difference to the bike’s performance. The new electronics package will provide an edge and allow Chris to get off the start line that bit quicker. Chris and the bike are definitely on the pace now and we have to make sure that we give him the parts that he needs to be able to compete with the rest of the field. Once these parts arrive we are confident of continuing and building on our success”.
Chris Burns, Rider:
Not having the front slick at the end of the qualifying session certainly made a big difference to our qualifying position. However, our free practice times gave us the confidence that we had the pace for the races. If I hadn’t been forced to start from the pit lane in race one, the bike ‘bogging down’ on the start line in race two, I know I could have finished higher in both races. At the beginning of the season if somebody had said we would get three podiums from four starts it would have taken some believing. However, the team is working hard and we are benefiting from that effort. As a racer, though, you always want to improve and having tasted the podium again, after such a long time, I want to be stood on the top step as soon as possible. It will happen.”
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