The ePayMe Yamaha team made their debut at the opening round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Silverstone this weekend, scoring a top ten finish with John Hopkins in the opening race and learning valuable information for the second round at Oulton Park later this month.

The weekend started strongly for 2011 title runner-up Hopkins who had fired the ePayMe Yamaha into the top four in all three of the free practice sessions which took place in changeable conditions. The Californian also mastered the changing conditions in Datatag Qualifying to secure his place in the third and final stage of the race one grid decider to start seventh on the grid for the first race.

Stuart Easton had endured bad luck in qualifying when a problem sidelined him from completing a fast lap but he was ready to bounce back in the two races after making positive steps forward to get himself more comfortable with the gearing of the YZF-R1 Yamaha.

In the opening race Hopkins had been fighting his way through the field to be holding a position inside the top ten, but had opted to run the harder Pirelli tyre option. Towards the second half of the race Hopper began to encounter some issues the team had not discovered previously and made changes after the race in preparation to resolve it for race two.  Easton was meanwhile forced to retire from the race with a technical issue.
Hopkins had high hopes for the second race to build on his ninth place in race one, but unfortunately an electrical problem sidelined him from contention and he was forced to retire. Easton was also unable to finish race two, however the team now look ahead to their next test at Oulton Park later this month ahead of the second round at the Cheshire circuit.

Hopkins said: 

“It has been an unfortunate ending to the weekend for us. It is a new team and we have started from scratch just a few months ago. The weekend started with different weather so we were riding around the conditions and so today was the first time we really had ridden in full dry conditions.

“In race one we had a decent start and we chose to run the harder tyre and although we had tried it before, we hadn’t run it before over a full race distance and we struggled a bit with rear grip and then we had a few chassis problems that we hadn’t encountered before in testing. However it was obvious that the bike has huge potential and the throttle and power delivery felt good.

“We made some changes in race two and it was night and day different. We had started a bit further down the grid and that meant that we had a fight to get through the pack. We got up into the top ten and I could see the leaders but then we had an electrical problem that made us come into the pits.

“It was unfortunate to end the weekend that way but at the same time we have taken a big step forward with the chassis at this event and the feeling in race two was definitely an improvement. We had all hoped for more this weekend but I know we haven’t even scratched the surface yet and we look forward to the test now before Oulton Park.”

Easton said: 

“We had a few issues along the way and it came at the worst possible time as we just kept running into trouble. It was a bit of a disaster that we didn’t finish either of the races but at the same time we have learnt a lot this weekend and we have some good information to move forward with for the next round. It is perfect for us to have the Oulton Park test next so we have that to look ahead to.”

Team manager Tommy Hill commented: 

“We had a good pace this weekend and it showed that as a team we have worked well to get from nothing to the point we are at right now for the first race of the season.

“John was up there in the free practice session and that built up momentum during the weekend. We knew it was going to be tough and we wanted to come away from Silverstone with points and that was the case with him in race one.

“Stuart has done a lot of work to feel more comfortable with the Yamaha and we have done a lot of work on gearing which did make a difference here at Silverstone.

“We had a few technical glitches which are through no fault of the team, but that was still disappointing. We know that we have a lot more to come and I feel that the results don’t reflect the pace that we had this weekend, but we have a test at Oulton Park next and we will be back stronger for round two.”