Young American rider Brandon Paasch joined the G&S Racing Kawasaki team to ride at Brands Hatch in the Superstock 600 championship round on Sunday – and instantly clicked with the Kawasaki to record a fine 14th place.
Tom Fisher also rode well through some electrical problems in the Stock 1000 class to record two strong results for the Wyberton team in his races.
Starting the first sector of the opening Superstock 1000 race from the ninth row, Fisher began to pick off the riders ahead, reaching 24th position on lap six of 17.
But the red flag brought the race to a halt. At the restart it was to be a quick dash to the flag over eight laps. Although Fisher made it up to 18th place, the bike began to suffer from an electrical problem and he dropped back to complete the eighth laps in 21st position.
After a ten-minute break to change tyres and refuel, Fisher started from the seventh row but it soon became clear that the electrical problem was getting worse and he pulled into the pits to retire on lap eight.
In the last of his three races, Fisher set off from the ninth row and, although he realised it would be a near impossible task from that far back to get up into the points, he gave it his best shot and worked his way through to finish in a strong 21st place.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Paasch – who has an impressive background being the 2016 Moto America KTM RC Cup Champion and third overall finisher in the 2016 KTM RC Cup World Finals – has been working hard to advance to the next level of motorcycle road racing this year.
He was looking forward to the weekend and was happy that G&S Racing Kawasaki was able to provide him the opportunity to follow his dream.
He made steady progress through practice and qualifying and began his race from the fifth row.
As the race got underway he got a good start and was 12th on the opening lap.
The racing was close and he was exchanging places within a large group of riders, eventually completing the race in 14th place to pick up two championship points.
Team manager Mark Fisher said: “We were excited to be working with Brandon this weekend and, although he is fresh to the series, I was sure he would do well.
“Considering he has never been to Brands Hatch, ridden a Kawasaki or used Pirelli tyres before, he was very impressive.
“He arrived in the UK late on Thursday and settled to the bike as if he had been riding it all his life.
“We are working hard to see if we can get him over again to race in a couple more races but we are held back a bit because of the need for a working visa which is proving difficult.
“Of course we also need to find a budget to run Brandon and, with the cost of flights, we are looking for some help to make this happen.
“Tom had three races to contest this weekend and we had hopes for some good points finishes, but he has been struggling with an electrical problem which proved difficult to rectify.
“But we got there in the end and he rode well, going faster than ever before, getting down into the low 29s. Sadly, because of his non-finish, he was awarded a low grid position for the third race.
“Thanks to all our sponsors and supporters again this weekend we really appreciate all the effort they put in.”
The next round is at Thruxton over the weekend of August 4-6.
