Hegarty's ready for the North West 200!

Top Gun Hegarty all set to fire at 2017 Vauxhall International North West 200.

Dan Hegarty made his debut at the 2016 Vauxhall International North West 200 and the Nottingham rider can’t wait to return with his new Top Gun team in May.

Held wearer Dan Hegarty: Getting ready!

The 31 year old will be riding in the Superbike, Superstock and Supersport races on the Honda Racing Fireblade that Conor Cummins campaigned last season alongside a Supersport spec CBR600RR Honda and a 2017 spec Fireblade in the Superstock races.

“I really enjoyed last year’s North West.” the Nottingham rider said during the Honda test at Castle Combe last week.

“The weather was great and I had a good run in the Superstock race.”

A Scarborough specialist and the top privateer at last year’s Isle of Man TT and Ulster Grand Prix, Hegarty is building his road racing CV. A maiden appearance at the 2016 Macau Grand Prix is now being followed with another season on the Irish roads, beginning at the North West on May 7-13.

Dan looks good in the black Held suit too! 

“The North West is a great circuit and it requires a lot of work to guage your braking markers from the high speeds.” he explained. “My favourite part of the circuit was the coast road section. Coming over Black Hill and the run down into Juniper with all that heavy braking was awesome.”

One of the fastest newcomers at last year’s event, Hegarty will be on one of the fastest bikes on the circuit in 2017.

“I know what riders like John McGuinness has done on the Honda and I know there is plenty more to come from me.” he said. “I will have 20bhp more than I’ve ever had before. We have the donkey now, it is up to refine everything around that.”

Hegarty has switched from the K Tech suspension and Dunlop rubber he used on his stocker Kawasaki last year to Metzeler tyres and Maxton suspension for 2017. What is his goal with the new Honda superbike at this year’s North West?

“I don’t set goals because that is pressure.” the level headed 31 year old says. “As long as I am always going forwards on the roads then I will be happy.”

Dan Hegarty!

Good luck from all at Held!

To see more about Held in the UK please visit www.held-uk.co.uk

Held Racer Dan Hegarty- Cadwell Park

This just in from Held wearing racer Dan Hegarty:

Had a great weekend at Cadwell, first time out on the Top Gun Racing 600. The team have put a lot of work into building engines and mapping the bikes with Motec now fitted too.

The good news is that we ran a decent pace for a short circuit straight out of the box meaning that the engine is strong. We also have an identical one as a spare.

Chassis wise the bike is in the ball park but needs fine tuning. We improved it a lot over the weekend but as the bike improved the weather battled against us so was hard to see a clear improvement in lap times.

We came away with a win, 2nd, 4th and a 6th running in with some decent British Championship young lads too (Every one of them is a flipping loon, 3 out of the 4 of them crashed over the weekend!)

We have a few changes that we are going to do to the chassis and clutch plus riding position before the next time we go there so we hope to improve again.

In other news, Wurz has today collected the Superbike from Honda and also been to Maxton to have the new suspension fitted.

He is coming down to my place tomorrow so we can start work on the her and drool over her for a while.

Next test will be 4/5th April at Castle Combe alongside the Factory team of John and Guy. We will have the 600 and Superbike for this test but not the Stocker. Latest on the Stocker is that we could now have it early April. It has gone well past a joke of how hard it is to get hold of one but we have the other bikes to keep us occupied in the meantime….

I’ll hopefully have a new sponsor to announce to you all very soon both as a sponsor to me personally and also to the team for the Superstock bike as main sponsor.

Dan Hegarty

To learn more about Held in the UK please visit 

www.held-uk.co.uk

World SuperSport Round 1: Held Racer Stefan Hill

The opening round of the World Supersport Championship did not go the way that the Profile Racing team would have hoped. Both Stefan Hill – and teammate Luke Stapleford – were forced to retire from the race.

The weekend started strong in Friday’s practice sessions with Stefan taking a very mature approach to the weekend. He took his time to continue to adjust to the bike and build his speed gradually. He would end the day 20th and ready for qualifying.

Stefan again continued to improve and impress the team on Saturday as his times were getting faster and he would qualify in 18th place.

Stefan was riding strong and battling for the last few remaining points in the race. He looked like he would be able to start the season by securing his first ever world championship points. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as on lap six his bike suffered a technical failure and he was forced to call it quits.

The team now know what the problem was and is confident it will be fixed for round two in Thailand.

Stefan Hill: 

“Although there was a technical error and I couldn’t finish the race I felt there’s loads of positives to take out the weekend! I went a lot faster than I had previously on the new triumph. I feel like I’ve made big improvements even though I didn’t finish the race but know we will be back stronger and better for Thailand in two weeks time.”

Picture Credit: Rob Gray, Polarity Photos

To learn more about Held in the UK please visit 

www.held-uk.co.uk

To learn more about Stefan Hill please click here

New Held Centre opens this Friday 24th February!

A HUGE selection of Held can be seen as the new upstairs exclusive Held Centre at Kawasaki Dealer GT Superbikes near Cardiff opens this Friday, 24th February.

Celebrations continue on the 25th too, as GT Superbikes also shows off the 2017 Kawasaki Range!

We'll will have two of our main men available on the Friday and Saturday to discuss all things Held and motorcycling. And on Saturday, if you're brave enough, you can RACE Manx GP Winner TOM WEEDEN on the GT Superbikes ManxGP Game. We're giving out prizes as well, so do you think you can beat him?

Race Manx GP Winner Tom Weeden at GT Superbikes on Saturday on the ManxGP Game!

Here's an overall flavour for what's happening:

• Opening of the new exclusive Held Motorcycle Gear and Accessories Centre
• 2017 Kawasaki Range on display
• Meet ManxGP winner, TT Racer and Held wearer Tom Weeden- and race him!
• Chance to win Lee Bowers Refined Raw Z300
• Win Held Prizes
• Open until 9pm on Friday
• Special offers available on both days
• Refreshments available on both days

It's going to be awesome! So, if you're in the South Wales area, come on down! Here's how to find GT Superbikes:

Beeches Industrial Estate

Coedcae Lane

Talbot Green

CF72 9DY

Call: 01443 449555

Email: info@gtsuperbikes.com

Web: www.gtsuperbikes.com

Held Racer Report: Leon Jeacock, Rd 12 Pirelli National Superstock1000 Championship

Mission Accomplished

Leon went into the last round of the Pirelli National Superstock1000 Championship with Black Horse at the iconic Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit with the aim of finishing in the top ten of this highly competitive series. A task made even more daunting by the decision switch to the ‘NMT No Limits’ Kawasaki team after an approach by the team to ride their machine.

Acclimatising to the Kawasaki after a season on his BMW, he was relatively pleased with his seventeenth place in the free practice session but was hoping to make more progress in qualifying one after changes to the machine. Leon posted a time good enough for twenty third on the provisional grid with qualifying two to come. With adjustments made for qualifying two overnight Leon was confident of improving on his time. Although he achieved this by going a second faster he was still left in twenty third on the starting grid due to the quality and speed in this championship.

Leon needed to dig deep if he was going to claim a top ten finish in the final standings from his starting position. Making a great start he finished lap one in fourteenth place and was deep inside the midfield scrap with all the riders battling hard. By half distance he was up to eleventh place and looking to break into the top ten. Disappointingly for Leon though the tyres started to lose their edge and he dropped a number of places before the end of the twelve laps. Despite this he gained two precious points for finishing fourteenth and these ensured he finished in the top ten in the championship.

Speaking after his race he said “massive thanks to my family, sponsors, supporters and friends who have all helped me achieve my best ever season in national racing, it’s been unbelievable, bring on 2017”

Held are pleased to support and supply Leon Jeacock. To learn more about Held in the UK please visit 

www.held-uk.co.uk

Held Racer Report: ZOEK RACING BRANDS HATCH SEASON FINALE

ZOEK RACING BRANDS HATCH SEASON FINALE

Team Zoek Racing were at Brands Hatch for the final round of the Ducati TriOptions Cup where Sean Neary secured second place in the championship by recording the win in each of the two races while Craig Currie took 13th and ninth to finish in 14th place.

After qualifying in third place Neary from Lymm in Cheshire began the first race from a front row grid position. The race was moved from Saturday to Sunday because of several delays in other classes and then reduced in distance to eight laps. As the lights went out Sean maintained third place on the first lap but moved up into the lead after passing Phil Atkinson at Westfields one lap later. Although he headed the field the action was close and positions exchanged through the middle laps but Sean kept his head and powered the bike through to secure the win just under a second in front of Leon Morris.

Zoek Racing's Sean Neary

Starting the final race of the season from pole position Sean knew that nothing less than a win would suffice if he was to move up into second place in the championship and he was determined not to be denied. He led the race from lights to flag with him and Leon Morris edging clear of the pursuing pack. He had a big moment on lap five when he ran wide at Paddock Hill and very nearly crashed but he was quick to recover and remained in control at the front.

After the race Sean said: "l still cannot believe that we did the double to win both races and make it three in a row. I couldn't be happier for the whole Zoek Racing team and all the people that help me. I have to say a massive thank you to them all. We will be back next year to try to get the number one plate!"

When the points were added up Neary had scored 289 to the new champion Leon Morris who scored 294. Just five points separated him from lifting the trophy.

Meanwhile Craig Currie from Newark began the first race from the fourth row. He didn't get the best of starts and crossed the line at the end of the first lap in 16th place. But he stuck with it and passed Ross Humphries on lap three to chase after Dave Ferns a few yards ahead. He reeled him in and finally made his move stick to pass Ferns and settle into 13th position which he held to the chequered flag.

Zoek Racing's Craig Currie

Starting the final race from the third row Currie got away to a fine start and was up to seventh on the opening lap. One lap later he was up to sixth after passing Taryn Skinner and on lap three he overtook Sam Middlemas to secure fifth place. But his progress was short-lived as he was relegated to seventh and then eighth and with one lap remaining he was pushed back to ninth when Mark Cheetham made a pass. The action was fast and furious within the bunch of riders with Currie crossing the finish line just a tenth of a second behind Cheetham in ninth place.

Currie completes his season in 14th place on 47 points but the scores are very close and he was not far away from a top 10 end to the season.

Pics show Currie #42 and Neary #10 in race action at Brands Hatch
Credit: Dave Yeomans

Zoek can also help you be a winner too- check out their superb recruitment website here

To learn more about Held in the UK please click here

Held Racer Report - A win for Zoek racing's Sean Neary at Assen

ZOEK RACING ASSEN

After seven second and three third places Zoek Racing rider Sean Neary has taken his first victory of the season at Assen in the Netherlands in the penultimate round of the Ducati TriOptions cup on Sunday. Sean has always been known as the nearly man but not anymore as he led the race for the majority of the 10 laps and crossed the finish line with a 0.3 second advantage over Jonny Railton.

Unfortunately his Zoek Racing Teammate Craig Currie suffered a mechanical problem in the first of the two races at Assen and then crashed unhurt out of race two on the first lap.

Qualifying had gone well for Neary who shot through to second place for a front row start to the first race with Currie starting from row four. As the race got underway Neary settled into second place and although he chased down Rob Guiver ahead he was unable to make a pass and crossed the finish line just five hundredths of a second behind him to take yet another second place. He commented: “So close! P2 in today's race 0.05 off the top spot. Well done to Rob he rode a faultless race. Mega thanks to the Zoek Racing Team for all they do and the sponsors that make it possible for us to race. I'm grateful to every single one of you."

Meanwhile Craig Currie was circulating in eighth place for the majority of the laps but encountered a problem with the Zoek Racing Ducati and was forced to pull out on the very last lap.

Starting the second race from the front row in third position Neary took the lead on the first lap. The safety car was deployed for a couple of crashes, one of which included his team mate Craig Currie who was able to walk away uninjured. When the car left the track at the end of lap three Neary continued to hold the lead but was being hunted down by Jonny Railton who fought his way past on lap seven of 10. But Neary was eager to record his first win and fought back to secure the lead on the penultimate lap which he held to the chequered flag to take the victory with an advantage of 0.3s over Railton.

Delighted with his first win Neary said: "it was definitely worth the wait for my first victory. It's my team boss Paul's birthday today and he told me I had to bring it home so that's what I did! A massive thank you to the Zoek Racing team, all my sponsors for sticking by me and everyone who has supported me throughout the season; it's coming good now so hopefully we can keep it up."

Held wearer Craig Currie, giving his Held leathers a good workout

Neary remains at third in the rider standings on 239 points with one round - two races - to go. Although it is mathematically possible to win the championship the two leading riders have to not finish either race and Neary to win both so unlikely but not out of the question.

The final round is back on home Tarmac at Brands Hatch over the weekend of October 14-16 when both Zoek Racing riders will be hoping for good results to end their season on a high note.

The Bonnie Lane Pics show Sean on the podium, Sean taking the chequered flag for his first win and the unfortunate Craig Currie crashing.

Zoek can also help you be a winner too- check out their superb recruitment website here

To learn more about Held in the UK please click here