Gavin Hunt was denied a top six finish at Donington Park on Sunday with the Northern Escalator Kawasaki rider crashing out of round ten of the 2014 Pirelli National Superstock 1000cc Championship. The Manxman was holding onto an excellent seventh place at the time and battling with a group of riders for fifth place.
The weekend didn’t get off to the greatest of starts for Gavin as he found himself back in a lowly 26th place after the first practice session but he went almost two seconds quicker in the opening qualifying session later in the day to leap up the order to ninth place overall. He went quicker still on Saturday with a time of 1m32.381s and whilst a number of other riders did likewise, he remained in ninth to line up for Sunday’s race on the third row of the grid.
A brilliant start to the race saw the Douglas rider complete the first lap in sixth place right in the wheel tracks of the official Honda and BMW entries of Freddy Foray and Lee Jackson and although the rapid BMW of reigning Champion Hudson Kennaugh pushed him back to seventh a lap later, the front eight riders had already opened up a good-sized gap over the chasing pack. A top eight position, at least, was very much on the cards but, having just set his fastest lap of the weekend on lap four – a time of 1m31.997s which was jus just 0.4s outside of the lap record – it all went wrong for Gavin on the fifth lap when he crashed out at the entry to the Esses, bringing his race to a cruel and early end.
The DNF and no-score means Gavin has slipped back a place to 13th overall in the Championship table with just two rounds of the series remaining.
Gavin Hunt: “I’m gutted with the how today’s race ended as I felt really good out there and although I was lacking a bit of top end speed to the BMWs, I was able to carry some really good corner speed and get away with the leading group. I made a brilliant start to the race and although I got pushed back to seventh, I was lapping comfortably quicker than what I had done in qualifying and I’m sure I could have at least equalled my best result of the season of seventh.”
“A couple of the riders in front of me though were quite slow through the corners and it meant my normal, racing line was compromised, which was what happened on the fifth lap. I was running really quickly into the entry of the Esses but the rider in front wasn’t and the front end just tucked on me. It’s a racing incident but frustrating as there wasn’t much I could do. On the plus side, I’ve been strong all weekend, consistently in the top ten, and we just need a bit more luck to convert our strong pace into a strong result. As always, thanks to the team for all their hard work and, hopefully, I’ll be able to repay them with a good result next time out.”
The series now has a four-week break until the penultimate round takes place at Silverstone on October 3-5.
