91传媒

Luca Wilkinson

鈥淭he dust has settled on the first race weekend on the new聽Kawasaki UK聽ZX-4RR at Brands Hatch and what an amazing weekend it was.

鈥淔irst, we have to thank the聽NW Racing聽team for all the support coming into this weekend. We have worked hard and everything was in place with the setup looking聽great.

鈥淲ith the weather bright and sunny but very cold, in Friday practice we just chipped away. Happy with progress and with the whole team having put in good times, we were ready for qualifying.

鈥淩acing on a mixed grid consisting of SuperTwins, Thunderbike Sport and the F400s made for an interesting mix of bikes. Qualifying went really well and Luca ended up P6 overall and P2 in class behind the ever-quick聽Craig Dance.

鈥淩ace 1 – Great race where Luca ended up in P1 in class and 11th overall. Not a bad start.

鈥淩ace 2 – With the sun setting, it had gone very cold. Luca carried on pushing and put in a PB but didn鈥檛 have the pace to go with Craig and came home P2 in class and P12 overall.

鈥淩ace 3 – Great start and into the class lead down into Paddock Hill, after that Luca lead from start to finish to get P1 in class and P6 overall.

鈥淩ace 3 鈥� Again, last race of the day and the sun was going down and the temperature was again dropping. Another great start and following Craig who was setting a great pace. Hitting PBs on every lap, Luca took advantage of a back marker and managed to pass Craig on the Brabham Straight. Unfortunately, that鈥檚 where the weekend went down fast. Coming into Graham Hill Luca lost the front on the brakes. He was fine but the bike decided to protest.

“Overall, it was a fantastic weekend for not only Luca but the whole team.鈥�

Zack Weston

鈥淧ractice: I went out thinking it would take some time to get up to speed, but I felt really comfortable and confident on the bike, and I was able to get up to speed straight away, surprising myself and the team.

鈥淨ualifying: After a good practice, I was confident going into qualifying. I didn鈥檛 quite get out where I wanted to but I was able to dig in and set a lap time that put me on the front row!

鈥淩ace 1: After an amazing qualifying, I was ready for race 1. I didn鈥檛 get the best start but it was a long race so I knew it was fine, it was a difficult race as it was 18 laps and I was struggling with rear grip but I managed it to the end and missed out on a podium by 0.1 seconds, to achieve P4.

鈥淩ace 2: After missing out on a podium in race one, I went for it in race 2, I got a good start getting into P2 into turn 1 and then taking the lead into turn 2 鈥撀爄t was a good race with lots of changes in positions and I was able to get up into P2 and finally get the podium.

“Race 3: After a good start, I had a huge slide out of T3 and dropped back 6 positions, I thought my race was finished, after a couple of laps I got back into my rhythm and picked riders of one by one, going onto the last lap I was in p4 and gave it everything and was able to get P3 on the line.

鈥淥verall, a great weekend with some amazing racing, time with friends and family along with a some of our amazing sponsors and Club35 members.鈥�