It was a bad day at the office for the G&S Racing Kawasaki team as the weather put paid to the racing for all three of their riders at Oulton Park over the weekend.
Qualifying had gone well for the two Superstock 1000 riders, Sammy Coventry and Tom Fisher – but come race day it had been raining and, although the rain had stopped, the track was still damp causing teams the dilemma of which tyres to use.
Most chose dry weather tyres, but as the race got underway the rain began to fall again and the race was red flagged to give the riders a chance to switch to wet weather tyres.
But, by the time they had reformed the grid, the rain had stopped again. Too late to change tyres again the race got underway.
Coventry made the most of the wet surface, reaching 11th place before his tyres began to break up.
He was on wet weather tyres in the drying conditions and he began to slip back until he pulled into the pit lane on lap five on safety grounds.
Fisher was also using the wet weather tyres and he too was running well in 18th place at the restart, but suffered the same fate as many riders and pulled into the pits to retire when the tyre broke up.
The next race on track was the Superstock 600 event and Ben Luxton had the same problem, whether to take the gamble with dry weather tyres or play it safe with wets.
He decided to opt for a dry rear and wet front in the hope the track would remain just damp but it didn’t work out and he too was forced to retire after a few laps.
Team manager Mark Fisher said: “The weather conspired against us.
“We were not alone as half the field in both classes chose the wrong tyre. It’s a shame as Sammy was going so well and looked as if he would break into the top 10 and Tom into the points.
“The team has worked so hard this weekend so we are all disappointed but that’s the way it is and you can’t control the weather.”
The next round for all three riders will be at Donington Park on May 28 where both classes will be on track as part of the support to the World Superbike championship event.
