ILR Kawasaki's season drew to a close with the final round of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship at Brands Hatch, and it was a weekend of mixed fortunes as James East came home in 19th, however his team-mate Harry Hartley crashed out of the race on the fourth lap, thankfully without injury.

There was little to choose between the two young riders in the first qualifying session which was held in damp, tricky conditions.
Both went out on wet tyres with East changing to 'drys' almost immediately, Hartley meanwhile elected to stay out on wets and asked for a dry rear to be fitted for the last eight minutes of the session which ended with James in 23rd and Harry fractions of a second behind in 25th.

Any chances of a climb up the grid and a chance to try out some new springs on the Ninja ZX-10R's were ended with the second session taking place in wet conditions and, with nothing to gain in terms of qualifying positions, both riders sat the session out leaving them on Rows 8 and 9 of the grid respectively.

Again it was cloudy and damp for the race and at the end of the first lap it was East who led his team mate over the line in 23rd position with Hartley reversing the roles on the next lap. The ding-dong battle continued on the third lap as James again got ahead with Harry tucked in behind. But just as he registered his fastest lap, Hartley crashed out on the fourth circuit to leave East as the team's sole rider in the race.
James was now down in 25th but was on the back of a large group of riders with little over a second covering them. For the next few laps he gradually worked his way through the field and with two-thirds of the race completed he had moved into 19th place where he remained to the finish, displaying great determination in holding off a serious threat from James Lodge whom he eventually managed to break clear of with two laps to go.

ILR (Ian Lougher Racing) is already looking ahead to 2015 and, as always, is appreciative of all the team's valued sponsors and also wish to thank everyone who has helped and supported the team in 2014.



ILR Kawasaki team manager Ian Lougher:

''It has been a difficult yet promising weekend at ILR, despite the difficult weather conditions both James and Harry gave a good account of themselves.

It's so hard to miss out on a full session like Q2 because of bad weather and therefore not allowing them to have more track time and push further up the grid.

Both riders made a good start and were in a battle of four riders that included Ian Hutchinson who has won Superstock races in the past.

Unfortunately Harry went down at a damp Druids, meanwhile James got quicker and quicker but we were running on a setting that was in between dry and wet so he could only go so quick on what he had, so 19th was very respectable.

I would like to thank both riders and their sponsors for joining ILR Kawasaki for the last few rounds of 2014, and hope to work with all of them again very soon.

Also a big thank-you to Matt, Dave, Nige and Asa for their hard work over the weekend."

James East :

"The last round of the championship came and went in a blur.

We had mixed conditions which made it feel like little time was spent on track, however the ILR Kawasaki never missed a beat.

Ian wound a comfortable setting in to the bike which felt good immediately, but whether we could be in a position to push on a dry track was undetermined due to the lack of testing time, again though I was confident in a set-up that would work in all conditions as I was happy enough with the feedback I had given to Dave and Ian to interpret and make a set-up to suit. My start wasn't bad in the race, but a rapidly drying track left me with a conservative set-up which was perfect to find grip with, but sat soft in the corner when I started to push.

With this feeling I did what I could, had a lot of fun sliding around! However the finishing position didn't reflect the fantastic effort the team put in.

Thank-you to Dave, Ian, Asa, Matt, Nigel and Richard for all of their efforts, and a massive thanks again to Lisa and Charlie for their support and for making it possible for me to race with such a brilliant team.

I hope to work with the ILR team in the near future and have some more fun."

Harry Hartley:

''Firstly I'd like to thank the whole ILR team for giving me the opportunity to return to the last two rounds of the National Superstock 1000 Championship.

It was a huge honour for me to ride for one of my TT heroes and I hope the work I did was sufficient for the team.

I'd also like to thank them all for their efforts at Brands Hatch, unfortunately the tricky conditions caught me out and I went down moving through the pack.

I think I could have reached the points but I will now have to wait until next season.''




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