NEWS: Burns Back On The Podium.

Latest BSB National Superstock 1000 news from Held wearing racer Joe Burns:
 

The team arrived in Donington Park highly motivated from the last result at Silverstone and with the determination to maintain the progress made with the performance of Joe and the bike. 

Free practice took place in dry and bright conditions and despite a traction control problem Joe ended the session 4th quickest with a gap to the top position of 1.274 seconds, the team used the time between free practice and Q1 to locate and fix the issues with the traction control. Qualifying 1 was completed with Joe in 5th position, but more importantly closer to provisional pole, the gap being just 0.865 seconds.
Qualifying 2 was run in cloudy but dry conditions and once again Joe was 5th quickest, the combined results of Q1 and Q2 left Joe in 5th with a gap to pole 1.226 seconds, but more importantly grid positions 2 to 5 were covered by just 0.392 seconds! A close race was in prospect.

Podium for Joe at Donington- photo courtesy of Jon Jessop Photography

In the race Joe achieved a great start and jumped straight into 4th place which he held through the first corner, at which point the race leader made a mistake and fell off, elevating Joe to 3rd. As the race developed it was clear that the leading trio of O’Halloran, Jenkinson and Burns were pulling away from the rest, however Lee Jackson made a big effort to catch the pack and on Lap 9 he managed to slip past Joe, however this swop of positions lasted only one lap, Joe retook 3rd place and showed his race craft by defending and maintaining the place for the last laps of the race. 

After the race Joe said’ “This is a great result for me, the team and all my sponsors, particularly JG Speedfit, Refresh Recovery and EACS, the season did not start as well for me as I had hoped but we have put in a lot of work, and today is the result of that effort. It was a good race for me and I enjoyed myself hugely, there was no way I was going to let Lee Jackson past me again, once in 3rd it was my place! I leave here really excited about the last races of the season.” 

With this result Joe now lies 7th in the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship.
The next race takes place at Silverstone 5th October.

To see more about Held motorcycle clothing and accessories in the UK please visit www.held-uk.co.uk, online catalogue too!

2nd Podium of 2013 for Held wearing racer Joe Burns

Following the most horrendous rain and wind on Friday, the weekend weather changed completely and Donington Park enjoyed warm and sunny conditions for the Saturday and Sunday of the World Superbike meeting. 

Held wearer Joe Burns - National Superstock 1000 2nd place at the WSBK event

On Friday Joe sat out the free practice sessions as the weather was just crazy, there was a brief respite for about 6 laps of the qualifying 1, and Joe took advantage of the only 5 dry laps to set the second fastest time of the day. 

The 40 riders entered for the race took to the track on Saturday for the 2nd qualifying session, making the ‘traffic’ quite difficult, despite two stops at the pits during the session, Joe just could not get a clear lap, and he was a little disappointed to only qualify 3rd. But this secured a front row of the 3 by 3 grid, a good place to be. 

From the start of the race Joe took second place behind Steve Brogan, however with an excellent move Joe took the lead, and a lap later Adam Jenkinson moved up to second, the leading trio then lapped consistently with less than 1 second covering all three of them. 

A small mistake by Joe coming into the esses was pounced on by Jenkinson, and Joe was now second, a position he held to the end of the race, clearly the leading three were in a class of their own, the gap between first and second across the finish line being just 0.340 of second. 

After the race Joe said, ‘I did not get the start I wanted, but getting into second place on the entry to Redgate was good, I managed to take the lead on lap 3, but made a mistake and fell back to second, a good race and I am very happy with the result, especially as I am now second in the championship!’ 

For more information on Held Rider Equipment in the UK please visit www.held-uk.co.uk

Held wearer Tom Weeden- Donington race report

On the back of a successful weekend at the Triumph Live race meet at Mallory Park, with Held wearerTom gaining his first  podiums of the season with a 1st and 2nd position, Weeden was certainly feeling confident going into round 7 of the Triumph Triple Challenge at Donington Park last weekend. After dropping to 5th in the championship standings at Cadwell Park, Tom was eager to score as many points as possible. 

Tom Weeden- looking forward to Silverstone

Tom set about learning the track in practice and put as many laps in as possible in the time available. He posted the 9th fastest time but was confident he could find a lot of time with new rubber on in qualifying. Weeden went almost 2 seconds faster in qualifying to put him 7th on the grid after being higher up the grid early on in the session. 

From the inside position on the grid Tom got off to a great start and slotted into 6th position into turn 1. He rode aggressively into turn two and went inside of two riders going into the fast Craner curve bends to move up into 4th position. He remained in 4th position as he rode a pretty lonely race trying to keep the gap back to 5th position at a constant second and trying if possible to catch 3rd position man Chrissy Rouse. 

Tom put in some very consistent lap times however by lap 7 of 10 the gap back to 5th had been closed to only 0.2 seconds. Weeden put his head down and tried to gap the rider behind him when on lap 8 the race was red flagged and stopped due to the rider behind him crashing out at the Melbourne loop. Tom was happy with 4th and had been moved up to 4th position on the grid where he hoped he could potentially challenge for a podium. 

Weeden got off to another brilliant start in race 2 and slotted straight into 2nd position into turn 1.  He remained in 2nd until lap 4 when he dropped down to 3rd after Phil Atkinson passed him. Unfortunately Tom had a huge moment coming out of the Melbourne loop that almost saw Weeden highside, luckily he managed to stay on the bike however he had a lost 2 seconds to the riders behind him on that lap. 

Tom dropped to 4th on lap 6 after championship leader Rob Guiver passed him. He held onto 4th position for as long as he possibly could however unfortunately he lost out on lap 9 due to a false neutral to drop back into 5th position. He remained in 5th until the chequered flag and was happy to have stayed on and scored some decent points, on another note 6th position was almost 7 seconds behind Tom. 

Weeden is next out at Silverstone, a track where he qualified 2nd on last year is hoping to push for a podium position. 





For more information on Tom Weeden please visit www.tomweeden.com.

For more information on Held in the UK and a list of stockists please visit www.held-uk.co.uk

DONINGTON DISAPPOINTMENT FOR JEACOCK

SUPERBIKES – Stockingford’s track ace and Held wearer Leon Jeacock came away disappointed with 20th place and missing out on vital Championship points in Round 10 of the Metzeler National Superstock 600 Championship, which took place at Donington Park over the weekend.

Jeacock: Dissapointed at Donington

Unveiling a brand new race bike in the BMC Racing Team livery, Jeacock qualified for Sunday’s race in 17th place, putting him on row 5 of the grid but despite battling hard crossed the line in 20th place.

“Its always a big ask to make up ground from row 5 despite a good start” said Jeacock, “But I tried my best, and yes I am disappointed not to pick up points this weekend, but that’s racing.  Onwards and upwards; we now need to regroup and refocus on the next round and hopefully we can make up for it at Silverstone”.

Jeacock goes into Round 11 of the 2012 Metzeler National Superstock 600 Championship in 18th place on the Championship leaderboard with just two rounds remaining.  Round 11 takes place at the world famous Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire over the weekend of 28th – 30th September.





For more information on Leon please visit www.leonjeacock.co.uk. For more information on Held Bike Gear please visit www.held-uk.co.uk

Donington Park- Racers wearing Held

We were privileged to be at Donington Park over the weekend, cheering on the racers wearing Held across five different race series.

Ducati 848 racer Sean Neary's Held Phantoms- Nice!

Here's a brief summary of how the Held wearing riders faired:

British Superbikes:

Scott Smart- 16th
Gary Mason- 20th

National Superstock 1000:

Seb Bulpin- DNF

National Superstock 600

Leon Jeacock- 20th

Ducati 848 Challenge:

Mike Edwards- 3rd, X2
Mark Cheetham- 7th & 8th
Sean Neary- 13th, 16th
Scot Adam- DNF

Triumph Triple Challenge:

Tom Weeden- 4th, 5th



Great racing as always, well done everyone!

www.held-uk.co.uk