MOORSIDE MOTORCYCLE rider Ashley Beech continues to be haunted by technical problems in the National Superstock 1000 Series.
And it was an all too familiar story in round eight and on a second visit of the season to Brands Hatch.
Despite changing bikes mid-season from Kawasaki to BMW, Beech remains plagued with technical problems, the most worrying being with the on board electronics system.
With help from BMW, this has been solved, though running at full power has now highlighted a problem with front end stability.
In the free practice session, Beech finished in 22nd place but found his BMW S1000RR race bike would not turn properly into left hand corners.
On inspection, his technicians discovered a fault to the front forks steering mechanism. Deciding to miss the first of two qualifying sessions, the team delivered the bike to local specialists for an overnight repair.
When the bike was returned the following morning, the handle bars, dash board controls and brakes were reassembled ahead of final qualifying.
Beech improved his lap times and finished 18th quickest, less than one second off the pole position time.
He got a flying start and had moved up four places until at half-race distance he slipped back to cross the line in 18th place.
“Because we lost so much track time in qualifying, we were unable to concentrate on suspension which cost us dearly, but we will be back in action at Cadwell Park at the end of August,” he said.
Follow Beech and the team’s progress at www.jonesdorlingracing.com, on Twitter @JDR_Racing or on Facebook JonesDorlingRacing
You must be logged in to post a comment.