Busy week and good results for Cummins

Busy week and good results for Cummins - Printable Version

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Busy week and good results for Cummins - Malcolm - 20-07-2011

Conor Cummins had a busy few days of racing this week with outings on both the roads and the short circuits but the Manxman enjoyed good results at both culminating in an excellent top ten finish at round 7 of the Metzeler National 1000cc Superstock Championship at Oulton Park. Riding the Blackhorse Kawasaki, Conor finished in a strong 9th place for his first points of the season and this was hot on the heels of some top six finishes on the McAdoo Kawasaki's at the Southern 100 road races on the Isle of Man.

It was here where his week started but with perfect, sunny conditions throughout race week, Conor experienced a number of technical problems, primarily with the electronics on the McAdoo Kawasaki so he was an early retirement from Tuesday's Open race. By the following evening though these had been resolved and he took a fine 4th place behind Guy Martin, Michael Dunlop and Ryan Farquhar. He followed this up on Thursday with a solid sixth place in the 600cc race, right on the back wheel of fellow Manxman Dan Kneen and he was looking good for another top six finish in the Solo Championship race only to be forced to retire with the Superbike machine overheating.

"The Southern was a bit up and down for me this year with some decent results offset by a few technical problems, which lost me a bit of track time, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was my first time back at Billown in 2 years but I felt my way back in nicely and my best lap in the Championship race was only a few seconds off my personal best so I'm pretty happy with how things went. I had a sniff of the podium in a couple of the races although we're still struggling a bit with bottom end power on the 600 and it was difficult to get by people. We've worked hard with the guys at Maxton though to get the handling pretty good and the whole McAdoo team have worked extremely hard this week so it's a good benchmark for us looking ahead to the Ulster GP."

Picture by Steve Corlett (Southern 100)

It was then straight on the ferry to Oulton Park for Round 7 of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000cc Championship where he linked up again with the Blackhorse Kawasaki squad and, after taking 20th in the free practice session, Conor improved his times in both of the qualifying sessions and with a best time of 1m40.801s in Saturday's final session, he lined up in 16th place on the grid for the 14-lap race, his best dry qualifying position of the year.

Race day saw the Cheshire venue hit by torrential rain and although he didn't make the best of starts, by the end of the first lap he'd worked his way up to 13th. A lap later he was up to 11th and on lap 3 he overtook Marshall Neill to move up into the top ten. Lapping strongly, Conor had the group battling for 4th ahead of him but when 3rd placed Danny Buchan crashed out on the fifth lap, the red flag came as conditions worsened. The result was declared at 4 laps and with Buchan out, Conor was awarded 9th place for his first points of the year, a brilliant effort and result given the conditions.

Speaking later, a pleased Conor said:

"Conditions were really bad out there and I could barely see the rider in front of me - it was only when they braked that they came into my sight! There was lots of standing water and grip was practically non-existent so everyone was having moments. I just tried to keep it as smooth as possible and find a good line, which was easier said than done! It was hard to overtake as you had to go off line but I managed to pick a few of them off and had the group ahead of me in my sights when the red flag came out. It really was horrendous but I'm chuffed to bits with not only my first points of the season but also a top ten finish so a big thanks to everyone in the Blackhorse Kawasaki team and to all my sponsors for sticking by me - I'm definitely heading in the right direction and things are getting better all the time."

Conor now has a three-week before the next round of the Superstock Championship with Brands Hatch hosting round 8 on August 5-7.

Phil Wain
Freelance PR