Snetterton results
Hello and welcome to Alex's Blog, the Snetterton results of all our J&S supported riders are written by our BSB superfan from our Leeds store, Dan! Here is Dan's Blog on the results:
Hi everyone and welcome back to my round-up of the action from this weekends racing which came from Snetterton. Warm weather but windy conditions caused problems for some of the riders. Once again J&S had riders racing in all the classes this weekend.
In the Honda Talent Cup young Sullivan Mounsey qualified in 24th place for the first race of the weekend. In his first race, he steadily made his way through the field to finish in 15th place and only just missed out on 14th by 0.1 of a second. Sullivan also set his fastest lap of the race on the last lap. Race 2 saw Sullivan start from 22nd place, a red flag brought an early halt to the race and stopped Sullivan's progress through the field. The result was declared and he was classified as finishing 16th overall. 1 more point added to the total this weekend for Sullivan so it's great progress.
In Junior Supersport Zak Shelton qualified on the second row in 5th place for the first Junior Supersport race. From the start of the race, Zak was always in the lead group of 6 riders and they broke away from the rest of the field. At the end of the race Zak finished in 6th place, the leading 6 riders were covered by 1 second. But more impressively Zak was 16 seconds off the 7th placed rider. In the second race, Zak had a DNF next to his name as he was caught up in an accident with 10 other riders. Tricky conditions as the rain caught out a lot of riders. 10 points this weekend for Zak still leaves him inside the top 10 of the championship.
In Superstock 1000 it was a packed field once again and this class always provides close times and racing. Qualifying came round on Saturday afternoon and it was Billy McConnell who set the fastest time out of all the J&S supported riders, he set a time good enough to see him start from the outside of the front row in 3rd position. Next up was Lewis Rollo who started from 5th on the grid. The final rider was Joe Collier, the Suzuki rider set a time which saw him start from 13th on the grid. The one and only race took place on Sunday for the Superstock riders, the race saw Billy take the lead early on and set a fast pace, he was joined by fellow J&S rider Lewis Rollo. Lewis fell back and crossed the line in 6th place. Joe Collier made up places during the race and finished in 11th position just outside the top 10. But it was Billy who made the podium once again to come home in 3rd place. Billy was only 0.4 off the lead and the top 3 were close all through the race. Second podium in a row for the OMG racing rider who now sits 4th in the championship.
Billy McConnell celebrating his podium finish
Superstock 600 saw Taylor Moreton suffer a fractured collarbone in the first practice session of the weekend. Caolan Irwin had a technical issue with his bike which meant that he couldn't set a qualifying time and this meant he would start at the back of the grid for the only race of the weekend. Louis Valleley who was riding his new MV Augusta bike qualified in 19th place. But it was the other Irwin brother Rhys who set the fastest time during the qualifying session and started the race from pole position.
In the race, there was action right from the start with 10 riders being involved in a crash, two of which were Caolan and Louis so it was a short weekend for those two. Rhys kept the ‘Irwin' flag flying and had a solid race to finish on the podium in 3rd place.
In Supersport 600 and GP2, Ben Currie and Dan Jones were racing for J&S this weekend. Ben had a mixed weekend and started the shorter sprint race in 8th place on the grid, Dan qualified in 24th overall and was the 8th fastest GP2 bike on the grid. In the race, Ben finished in 6th place, meanwhile, Dan came home in 17th overall and was the 5th GP2 bike to finish. After the race had finished the stewards found a technical fault with 2 other bikes, this promoted Dan up to 3rd in the GP2 class and gave him his first podium finish, not the way Dan would have wanted to earn it but still always good to get a trophy!!
In the second race of the weekend, Ben slid out of the running after running high up the field, Dan once again made progress through the field and came home in 15th place overall and was classed 7th in the GP2 standings.
The final class to report on is the Superbike class, 3 races again for the main class, with qualifying and the first race taking place on Saturday. Qualifying saw Graeme Irwin finish in 23rd place just behind Josh Owens in 22nd, next up was Hector Barbera in 17th place, just in front of him was Joe Francis in 16th place with Luke Mossey just in front in 15th place, Glenn Irwin set a time fast enough to see him start from 5th on the grid.
The first race saw all the riders improve form the starting places from the grid, Graeme came home in 20th place, he was in front of Josh Owens who came home in 21st, the trio of Joe Francis, Hector Barbera and teammate Luke Mossey all scored points by finishing in 15th, 14th and 12th. Luke only just missed out on 11th place. Glenn came home in 4th and missed out on a podium place for the first time this season. But he did set the fastest lap of the race which meant he would start race 2 from pole position.
The second race saw Graeme not take part in this race, Hector crashed out and Josh Owens finished in 18th. Joe again scored more points by crossing the line in 14th position. Luke came inside the top 10 by finishing in 9th place, and Glenn made another appearance on the podium narrowly missing out on the win by 0.4 of a second.
The final race of the weekend and another DNF for Graeme Irwin to round off a testing weekend racing for the Kawasaki rider. Josh Owens just missed out on championship points by finishing in 18th place, Hector Barbera scored the last point in 15th place, Joe again came home in 14th, with Luke Mossey finishing in 12th. But it was Glenn Irwin who took his first win of the season!! This was also a first for J&S, after 3 years we now have a win in the Superbike class!! The Honda man made his way through the pack after starting from 9th on the grid and secured the lead and the race win by 1.1 seconds!!
Glenn Irwin 1st on the Podium
This result now leaves Glenn leading the championship by 23 points. This was Glenn's first win after a disappointing 2019 and it's great to see him back to the form he has shown before whilst riding in the BSB championship.
So that's 6 races down now in this shortened season, the next action comes from Silverstone and the shorter National circuit. This takes place on the 4th, 5th and 6th of September. Hopefully, by then some fans may be able to attend. So thanks for reading and until next time stay safe.
Thanks
Danny