Victor Cox had the misfortune to crash out of Round 8 of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship at Brands Hatch on Sunday, but not before the Blackhorse Kawasaki teamster had once again shown that both he and the team's Ninja ZX-10R are more than capable of running at the cutting edge of proceedings.

The 24 year old from Trowbridge has shown great form since he replaced the injured Conor Cummins in June and free practice on Friday morning saw Victor finish the session ninth quickest with a time of 1:30.96secs. First Qualifying later in the afternoon would see Victor maintain his ninth place from earlier in the day with an improved time of 1:30.15 and he was confident of further improving his grid position in the second session on Saturday, however damp conditions for the session put paid to this and therefore he started the race from ninth but confident of mounting a serious challenge from the third row of the grid.

The race was less than a lap old when the safety car was introduced after Dennis Hobbs and Gavin Hunt crashed at Graham Hill Bend, by this time Victor was already up to seventh and when racing resumed at the end of the fourth lap he soon moved into sixth place and immediately set his sights on fifth placed Barry Burrell. With an excellent lap of 1:29.06, which would prove to be the fourth quickest of the race, he closed right up on his fellow Kawasaki mounted rival and looked set to occupy fifth place and line up Howie Mainwaring for fourth. Unfortunately as Victor arrived at Westfield, Burrell missed a gear giving Victor no chance of taking avoiding action, both riders went down with Victor re-mounting and returning to the pits to bring his race to a disappointing end.

However there were positives to be taken from the race. Victor was more than comfortable mixing it with the front runners and a fourth best overall lap time, despite only completing two real racing laps, was an excellent achievement. Victor is also completely at ease within his new team and on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R.


For his team-mate David Pearce it was a weekend where the young rider again finished in the Top 20 in the Metzeler National Superstock 600 class. David took things steady in Free Practice and in First Qualifying he knuckled down to business to improve his lap time by almost three seconds and move up to 24th in the standings. Again, as with the Superstock 1000 class, second qualifying was affected by damp conditions which gave David no real chance to improve on his earlier time and so he started the race from Row 6 of the grid. For the first three laps of the race David ran in 25th position, then on lap five as he had worked his way up two places, the safety car came out following a crash which left the bike on fire in the middle of the track. The car went in on lap seven and David continued to ride strongly, and despite a bit of brake fade he managed to move up to 19th as the red flags went out to bring the race to a premature end with a lap remaining. Another fine performance from the young Manxman who was fifth fastest through the finish line speed trap at 147.8mph.

Blackhorse Kawasaki team manager Ian Lougher:

"That was a real shame for Victor, to crash out whilst in the hunt for a top placing was very disappointing. However we take encouragement from his fourth fastest lap of the race and by how much at ease he is running with the front runners, he was also happy with the team's Ninja ZX-10R. For David it was another solid weekend on the ZX-6R, he's improving all the time and is getting ever nearer to getting amongst the points."

It's a break for both riders now before the next round at Cadwell Park on 28/29/30 August. For team boss Ian Lougher though it's a quick dash home to Northern Ireland for the Ulster Grand Prix over the Dundrod Circuit. Practice for the event begins on Wednesday, there is more practice on Thursday along with the Dundrod 150 races, with the main event on Saturday August 14.