The weather conditions at Oulton
Park were wintery with hail, snow and rain showers at times over the weekend.
Luke was uneasy with the wet conditions in the opening stages of the practice
session but worked hard with his Quattro TecCare Kawasaki team to find a set-up
he was comfortable with. In all the dry sessions, second practice on Saturday
and morning warm-up Luke was second quickest and showing some brilliant
pace.
The rain was heavy on Sunday for
qualifying and the youngster from Cambridge pushed hard to get through the
opening qualifying stage and into Q2. Once again he went out and put in a good
time which secured him 13th place on the grid for the opening race on
Monday.
The heavens opened once again on
race day just before race one was due to commence. Luke struggled to get off the
line and there was an incredible amount of surface water on the opening few laps
to contend with. Luke dropped back to 21st by lap three and was stuck
having to work his way up through the field. Luke has never ridden the Superbike
in a wet race before, conditions he is certainly not comfortable with but he
managed to push his way through to 16th place at the end of the
18-laps.
For race two Luke had to start from
14th position on the grid, a torrential downpour just before they
lined up on the grid once again threw a spanner in the works. Luke and his
Quattro TecCare Kawasaki team opted for a wet front and slick rear. Luke dropped
back to 18th after the first lap but managed to push his way up to
15th by lap four and 13th at the end of lap eight. As the
track quickly dried out Luke unfortunately was struggling with grip and was
forced to retire to the pits at the end of lap 15.
Luke Mossey - "I'm so disappointed about this
weekend and having to leave Oulton Park having not gained any Championship
points. It was a really difficult weekend with the changing conditions and we
never really got any decent track times, as it seemed to changes from wet to dry
all weekend.
I've never done a race in the wet on
the Quattro TecCare Kawasaki before today and I'm not a huge fan of the wet but
really wanted to just get some points for the team. The team found me a really
good setting and I felt more confident in the wet conditions than I ever had. I
was happy with my qualifying position and didn't know what the races would
bring.
The first race was really tough in
the opening laps; the spray was so bad that I could hardly see what was going on
in front of me. I dropped back through the pack and knew I'd left it too late to
try and push forwards. I always try to be consistent with my racing and always
set my target to be in the points at every round, this weekend it just wasn't
meant to be.
We had to take a gamble in the
second race with the downpour before we started. We opted for a wet front and it
was ok at the start but it wasn't long before the grip wore off and effected how
the bike was handling so unfortunately I had to retire.
It would be great to go to Brands
and have some dry weather and dry races as it is long overdue. I can't thank the
Quattro TecCare Kawasaki team for all their help this weekend and the confidence
they all gave me over all the sessions here. I'm just sorry I couldn't get them
a result, thank you to all my personal sponsors and hopefully we'll be back up
there at Brands."
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