Team Nvidia, news from Thruxton round three

Raceline Photography
By Brent Gladwin
April 18 2006

Donington was another race full of promise, yet, with only three days from arriving home and leaving for Thruxton, we had work to do burning the midnight - repairing bikes. Andy and everyone got the job done and away for Thruxton ‘brilliant work’.

We have been working with Chris Hodgeson from ADR Motorsport Chesterfield on a few things on the technical side, as they are the official Mitsubishi Rally Team and Shell race fuel supplier. This fuel is working well for and was used last season to win the Superstock title. We welcome Shell fuel’s joining – Shell Motorcycle Oils as technical support. Talking about Chesterfield, the town’s ‘Feltham family’ owned CMC Yamaha support Jon Boy as an employee of their Chanock branch, and we would encourage you to visit one of their many branches.

GP 125 – Lisa’s confidence builds:

Bouncing from her great wet race result to Thruxton saw an increase in confidence for Lisa. Thruxton, scene of her very high speed crash, it was good to go there with the feeling of results. Lisa does need to concentrate on pushing her dry performance forward, and confidence will always help that. We started the weekend with a wet session, which worked out well for Lisa - always in the top half of the time sheets.

We started to struggle in the dry sessions, but Lisa found some good improvements and qualified with no problem. The 15 lap race was always going to be hard, but getting away well helped. Lisa started a race long battle which helped move up the rankings and improve her qualifying time. Again being the only female finisher, we now have a good footing to work on and we are looking forward to Oulton Park.

Superstock - Baywatch Brogan jumps the podium into second:

After Donington we sat both Jon Boy and Steve A down and told them now they have to start bringing the bikes to the finish line, and no more fooling around in the sand pits.

Steve B has settled into the team well at such short notice, and is working well with his crew led by Derek Huxley. His comments to Andy that, “he feels he has a real chance as it’s the first time in a few years he has had a proper team around him,” bares testament to the hard work and fun.

From the start of testing things seemed to settle down and although we weren’t at the front, the advances in bike set-up were to prove excellent. At the end of qualifying, Brogan was third, Jon Boy ninth, and Steve A 11th - this was poor for Steve, and it was to do him no favours in the race.

The race was to be a brilliant TV spectacle, with the Team NVIDIA bikes in the thick of it again for full race distance. Brogie and Jon Boy made good starts, with Jon Boy just getting the better of Brogie. Just a couple of laps in and the pace car was out due to a high speed incident – this gave everyone a moment to catch their breath - as the car pulled off the track it was heads down. Brogie got past Jon Boy and joined the leaders for a race long duel – the pace was hot and frantic, with a dangerous move from Howie Mainwaring on race leader Adrian Coates, which was to cost them both - Coates crashed and Mainwaring removed from the results.

The battle was now on for the lead between the Yamahas of Kennaugh and Brogan, and Suzuki mounted Laverty. Baywatch led off the final turn, and a small mistake cost him the win by 0.06 of a second. Jon Boy did a great job bringing it home in eighth, and Steve A in the points too - a FANSASTIC day. Our first podium feels great for all the team and our sponsors. We will now work towards Oulton Park in two weeks, and we hope to see you there.

Best Regards,

Brent Gladwin
GR Motosport Ltd