It was a weekend of both disappointment and encouragement for Blackhorse Kawasaki at Brands Hatch.

Disappointment as one of the pre-race favourites Victor Cox crashed out of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 race, but encouragement as returning-from-injury Conor Cummins came through his first race since June last year with a solid ride to 18th place in the same class and new signing Brad Anderson rode a mature race to come from the eighth row of the grid in the Metzeler National Superstock 600 race to finish 14th on the Ninja ZX-6R.

Victor's misfortune was all the more disappointing as he had been consistently quick throughout the weekend, with the Trowbridge rider's Blackhorse Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R the second highest placed Kawasaki in qualifying. Seventh overall in free practice at 47.31 secs was followed by sixth best in first qualifying with a slightly faster lap of 47.21 secs. The team as always were working hard behind the scenes and were rewarded when Victor again went quicker in the second session with a time of 47.16 to cement fifth place in Group B and put him on the second row of the grid as provisional seventh fastest qualifier and optimistic of a good result in the race itself. However it all went wrong on the second lap as Victor, now starting from sixth on the grid, crashed out in spectacular fashion on the exit of Clearways thankfully without serious injury.

With Victor out of the race it was left to his team-mate Conor Cummins to take up the mantle for the team.

Only ten months after his terrible Isle of Man Senior TT crash, Conor enjoyed an excellent race weekend at Brands Hatch to finish 18th in the race. It was the Manxman's first race since fighting back from a catalogue of injuries and he was rewarded with an excellent finish and four solid days of practice and race action on the new Ninja ZX-10R Blackhorse Kawasaki that saw him getting quicker and quicker as the weekend wore on.

With hot, sunny conditions throughout practice and qualifying, Conor got his weekend underway with the 16th fastest time in the opening qualifying session on Saturday but with hotter track conditions on Sunday he was unable to better his time and, subsequently he ended with the 17th fastest time in his group. That meant he had to go into the 14-lap 'Shoot-Out' race in order to try and qualify for Monday's feature race but, grateful for the extra track time to help continue to build his fitness up, Conor put in a great ride to claim second thus taking his place on the grid on Monday.

He lined up in 30th place on the grid for the feature 24-lap race but a brilliant start saw him move up the order only for the red flag to come out after just 3 laps due to the incident involving team-mate Cox and Jonathan Howarth. 18th on the grid for the 16-lap re-start, a solid start saw Conor move up to 16th and on the brink of the points although he just didn't quite have the pace to close the gap to the five-man group dicing for 11th. Instead, he found himself fighting it out with Gerard Kinghan and Seb Bulpin and he ended up crossing the line in 18th position, an excellent effort given he only came out of hospital last August and has spent the entire winter months fighting to get fit.


Speaking immediately after the race, a delighted Conor said:

"To get that first race out of the way feels absolutely brilliant and all weekend I've just been getting better and better. Practice went well and although the second qualifying session didn't quite go to plan, I was glad to get the extra mileage in the Shoot-Out race and we were able to try a few more things with the bike which really helped with the set-up. I achieved my goal of getting into the race proper and after that anything else was going to be a bonus."

"As it turned out, I got a mega start and achieved more than I thought I could. It's very much work in progress but I feel like a racer again and to be battling it out close to the points after all I've been through is pretty good going in my book. I've got to say a big thanks to the team for making my life so much easier this weekend as they've absolutely worked their backsides off. I've also got to say a massive thank you to them and all my sponsors for sticking by me through the hard months I've had. To sum it up, I'm chuffed to bits!"

There was more to come as Brad Anderson stepped up to produce a debut performance which pleased both himself and team boss Ian Lougher. 13th and 14th respectively in both qualifying sessions in his group, Brad also found himself in a 'shoot-out' race where he started from pole position. He led from start to finish to qualify 29th for the feature race on Row 8 of the grid. As they swept through at the end of the opening lap, Brad had gained ten places and was up to 19th, at the halfway stage he was still 19th and in the middle of a dicing four rider group.

Two-thirds distance and Brad was up to 17th and pushing for a top 15 placing. With a terrific last effort he managed to elevate himself to 14th at the flag and in the points in his first competitive race for Blackhorse Kawasaki.

So very much a mixed bag for Blackhorse Kawasaki but one from which the team can take many positives. Most importantly Victor Cox was relatively unscathed following his crash and is already looking forward to the next round at Oulton Park. For Conor Cummins it was 'mission accomplished' as he once again took his place on a race grid, whilst Brad Anderson will very much look to build on his points score in the rounds to come.

The team would particularly like to thank Joe Grant and his partner Claire from sponsors Solway Slate and Tile Co. Ltd. for all their hard work and assistance at Brands Hatch.