Held Racer Report: Leon Jeacock, Cadwell Park, National Superstock 1000

Cadwell Park was the latest stop in the Pirelli National SuperStock1000 Championship. A technical track with a tight twisty section, a long straight and the infamous “Mountain” it is not a track for the faint hearted. It was certainly going to be a challenging, tough weekend of racing for Leon and the Geo E Davies Racing team.

The two free practice sessions were held in dry conditions and after posting a time in the top thirty in session one the team made changes to the Suzuki in preparation for the following practice laps. The adjustments made for session two proved to make a big improvement and confidence was high for Leon. Nevertheless, due to the competitive nature of the class and despite going nearly two seconds quicker he was placed twenty third.

As preparation was made for the sole qualification session of the weekend the team were hopeful of a good grid position. However, the vagaries of the British weather put pay to that as a rain shower dampened the circuit just as qualifying started. Leon put in a decent lap and finished just outside the top twenty in twenty second.

Dropping a place on the first lap in the midfield hordes Leon made up two places on lap two and then settled into a decent race pace running in a group of six riders for the majority of lap fifteen race. As the race rolled into the closing laps he made up four places in the hoisting Leon up to sixteenth place just outside a points finish.

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

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Held Racer Report: Kurt & Matt Wigley, Thruxton

Thruxton Race Report

Last weekend British Superbikes were down at Thruxton for the seventh round of the championship. Due to the lack of time following our discovery of the reduced bhp of the Supersport R6, we were to attend the fastest circuit on the calendar knowing that top speed would be a struggle.

Nicely showing off the Held Gloves!

FP1 began looking positive, however as the session progressed, Kurt struggled to improve his lap time due problems with the bikes handling. Exiting the fast sweeping corners, the bike was sliding and bouncing around in the attempt to high side. The team put their heads together to establish a solution following the 13th place finish which is not where we aimed to be. This lead to a series of suspension changes to compensate for the bumpy flat out circuit.

The second free practice session began to look positive as by lap 4 Kurt had knocked 0.6 of a second off his best lap from the previous session, however, this came to an abrupt stop as it became apparent that we were facing similar problems to the mornings FP1. The session came to an end with a 15th place finish and confusion as to where we had gone wrong.

Saturdays qualifying session was later in the day leaving us some more time to understand what we were up against. Under further inspections we identified that there was a mechanical fault with the rear shock meaning there was nothing we could do to the settings to resolve the handling issue. The shock was removed and serviced in preparation for Q1. Kurt took another 0.6 off his best lap time but because of the series of events leading up to this we were playing catch up and had to start from scratch back at the original base setting for the suspension as any alterations previously made were obsolete. The session came to a close with another 15th place finish.

Saturday afternoon brought the 10-lap sprint race for the Supersport class. Further changes were made leading up to the race which always hold a risk that it wasn’t for the better, however, this was not the case and Kurt’s personal best lap time was improved again. Kurt was in a heated battle with another 5 riders making his way up to 11th position at one stage. On the final but last lap, Kurt over ran the chicane leading onto the home straight and in the attempt to revert the advantage gained he fell back to P14 for the chequered flag.

Sunday brought an 18 lap feature race meaning tyre wear was a problem that everyone faced due to the abrasive circuit of Thruxton. The second race proved the difficulty faced with competing when down on power as every lap Kurt was overtaken on the back straight reaching speeds in excess of 150mph. This meant that he had to try and outbreak someone leading to him failing to stop and missing the chicane on several occasions each time knocking him out of a rhythm. The race came to a close with another 14th position finish picking up points in the championship but frustrated with the circumstances of the weekend.

Cadwell Park is right around the corner and we aim for a better performance with plans in place to replace the engine.

Held UK are proud to support Kurt and Matt Wigley with Race Gloves! www.held-uk.co.uk

Held Racer Report: Sean Neary wins at Thruxton

ZOEK RACING THRUXTON

Sean Neary completed his qualifying in fourth place and started the first of two 10 lap races from a second row grid position. He got away to a good start and was up to second place at sector two on the first lap. He was demoted a place when Joe Collier came past but he never lost touch with the two leaders and by lap four the top six riders had pulled clear of the pursuing pack.  Neary was not content with third place and both he and Collier made a pass on Levi Day who had been leading the race up until then. One lap later and Neary was flying, he set a new lap record of 1m 19.818s on lap five and both he and Collier pulled away from Day to argue over the lead. Despite there only being a 10th of a second separating Neary from Collier in the lead he was unable to make a pass stick and at the finish line he crossed the finish line a fifth of a second behind Collier to secure second place.

Neary said: “Being over six foot doesn’t help my cause as I was just getting eaten down the back straight so I will have to lay off the pies!! But to be fair it was a great race, I just didn’t have the legs on the straight in the sector when I really needed but will work on that for tomorrow. But for now it is great to be back on the podium and to set a new lap record. We'll make a few changes for tomorrow race. A massive thank you to all the Zoek Racing Team and all our sponsors; the team has worked so hard to improve the bike. Big shout out again to Lee Jackson Snr for working with me after each session to improve setup as well. Just need one more step to get JHP Ducati Coventry back at the front where they deserve to be. Unfortunately Craig is out for the weekend due to an old shoulder injury rearing its head.

Starting race two from pole position Neary settled into second place behind Levi Day with Joe Collier following in close formation.

The three pulled away from the pursuing pack and it was clear the winner would come from within the group of three. Collier moved to the front but Neary was not letting him get away and as they rounded Church he took the lead, but it was short lived as Collier fought back at the next corner. This was repeated at Church again with sparks flying from the Ducati as Neary hit the tarmac with his knee slider and on the penultimate lap Collier ran wide at the Club chicane and was deemed to have gained an unfair advantage by race control. Unbeknown to Neary and Day he was issued a half second time penalty so all Neary had to do was to follow him home as close as possible to secure the win.

Neary said: “We finally got the bike right and I am back to winning ways. I was determined I was going to win that race and was intending to make my move at Church on the last lap. But then Collier cut through the chicane and I knew he would get a penalty so all I had to do was stick on his back wheel and I would get the win. I am absolutely made up for the Zoek Racing team and Ducati Coventry both the team and sponsors deserve that.

“It was a very sad day for all of us with the news of the accident in which we lost Mark Fincham. My thoughts are with the True Heroes team and Mark’s family and friends. I have no hesitation in dedicating my win today to his memory.”

Sadly Craig Currie was forced to pull out of the races this weekend because of a recurring shoulder injury. He is hoping to be back in action for the next round at Silverstone on September 10.

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