Frustration for Thomas during Croft qualifying.
Round ten of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Croft has started out in frustrating fashion for Samsung Suzuki’s Dean Thomas who qualified in thirteenth place.
“It is a little frustrating, we came here and first thing Friday morning I was sixth or seventh quickest out of the box and putting in lap times around the low 23 mark which is not fast but not slow,” explained Thomas, “The problem is every session from then we have only progressed a few tenths at a time rather than half a second at a time. We have hit some sort of wall with the bike that we are struggling to get around.”
The team have struggled for set up as he went on to say, “It is a bit too rigid, it is not soaking the bumps up and it is quite a bumpy circuit. We have gone forward, we qualified with a 21.3 and we are in unlucky thirteenth. Saying that we are only a few hundredths off Michael Rutter and we are in front of Scott Smart.”
Some progress has been made but just not enough to take Thomas to where he wants to be, “To find that second and a half to two seconds to get to the sharp end, we can’t find that at the minute, not with the chassis. A little frustrating on one side but on the flip side the guys are working as hard as they can. The Samsung guys are doing a great job; I’m riding as fast as I can ride so I guess I can’t complain,” he said.
Croft is a circuit Thomas has done well at in the past as he says, “I don’t mind the circuit, it does suit the way I ride and I’ve been on the front row a couple of times in the past which is probably why I’m a little bit more frustrated really. I know that I can do it but we don’t seem to be able to carry the turn speed that the front guys are running with. Their bikes are soaking the bumps up and ours is chattering across them and it is holding us back a bit. It is the best that we can do we are working hard, we are not first but we know that we are doing the best that we can do and so be it.”
With race day looming he is being realistic about what results he can achieve, “The best we can aim for is top ten – the ninth to tenth bracket which is what we can do with the package we have. An average race its twelfth to fourteenth position which at Mallory Park I had those kinds of results. I feel that is where I’m going to finish this weekend. If we can run into the top ten I’d be pleased.”
