Sendo Ducati Dienza - Knockhill BSB report

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By Carly Rathmell
July 11 2004

It was a wet, miserable and dull weekend for the Sendo Ducati Dienza Performance team this week (4th July). The eighth round of the Think! British Superbike Championship was taking place at Knockhill, just North of Edinburgh.

The weather left a lot to be desired, and torrential downpours and hail storms throughout the weekend put severe delays on proceedings.

31-year-old Australian rider Dean Thomas was suffering mixed fortunes throughout the weekend, and the horrendous weather was stopping play for all the riders concerned. Each time a heavy rainstorm appeared, events had to be stopped to allow the marshals to clear the track of stagnant water. Thomas ended up fourth fastest in the wet practice on Friday, and was happy with the way his 998 Ducati was handling and performing.

Still sore from his huge crash at Brands Hatch a few weeks ago, Thomas was putting the pain to the back of his mind and mastering the 1.3-mile Scottish circuit. Once again, rain stopped qualifying on the Saturday, and none of the top British Superbike riders were able to get a qualifying tyre in. With only seven minutes of dry weather, it was a fraught battle to try and get some laps under their belts. Thomas only managed three laps, and this placed him ninth on the starting grid.

Sunday morning was looking surprisingly bright, but the unpredictable weather soon changed! It was the first time in a while that Thomas had started on the third row, yet he was feeling confident as the riders lined up on the grid. There were a full mix of tyres on display, from cut slicks to full wets. Thomas chose a wet front and a cut slick rear. As the lights changed he got a great start and moved his way through to sixth, looking comfortable.

He began to carve his way through the field, soon passing Honda mounted Ryuichi Kiyonari. His sights were set on Yamaha rider Gary Mason, and Thomas made a very tidy manoeuvre on him. Sitting comfortably in fourth, Thomas was keen to get his first podium place. Second place runner John McGuinness dropped his Kawasaki at the hairpin and, for a brief moment, Thomas’ hopes were becoming reality. It was unfortunately short lived as, on the following lap, he lost the front end coming out of the hairpin.

Thomas was adamant that this was not going to hinder him in race two, however, and as patches of the track were beginning to dry, tyre choice was a gamble. He managed to salvage ninth position at the end of the race, and had been struggling for grip throughout. A dejected Thomas commented, “It’s been another bad weekend for me. I was running really well in the first race and was sure that I could have gained a podium place. The conditions have been terrible and the consequence of that was lack of track time. I’m hoping my luck might turn around a bit for Mallory in a few weeks’ time.”

Race one result
1 Smart, Kawasaki, 22:53.543, 25 laps
2 Haydon, Yamaha, 23:11.690
3 Kagayama, Suzuki, 23:14.075
4 Reynolds, Suzuki, 23:38.301
5 Kirkham, Suzuki, 23:44.119
6 Mason, Yamaha, 23:44.938
7 Ellison, Yamaha, 22:54.285, 24 laps

Race two results
1 Haydon, Yamaha, 23:42.685
2 Emmett, Ducati, 23:43.105
3 Reynolds, Suzuki, 23:43.871
4 Rutter, Honda, 23:45.206
5 Kagayama, Suzuki, 23:54.465
6 Smart, Kawasaki, 23:54.644
7 McGuinness, Kawasaki, 24:12.743
8 Coxhell, Honda, 24:15.641
9 Thomas, Ducati, 24:17.612
10 Ellison, Yamaha, 24:22.643

Championship standings
1 Reynolds, 290
2 Rutter, 252
3 Kagayama, 208
4 Emmett, 206
5 Smart, 199
6 Thomas, 108
7 Kiyonari, 95
8 Hill, 88
9 Haydon, 87
10 Richards, 78

For more information see www.sendo.com and www.dienza.co.uk