BSB CROFT ROUND 10 15/08/04

From winter-like conditions on Friday to almost tropical on Saturday, then just nice on Sunday, ah well, that's British weather!  Yukio Kagayama and Michael Rutter were on form during qualifying with Kagayama taking pole from Rutter.  "Super sub" James Haydon qualified on the front row again in 3rd with Dean Thomas in 4th.  John Reynolds, finding it hard to get a good set-up was relegated to the 2nd row in 6th, Scott Smart was 5th.

RACE 1

Kagayama made good use of his pole position to lead on lap 1 with Haydon and Smart in hot pursuit.  Smart moved into 2nd, and Reynolds was up to 3rd on lap 4, with Haydon dropping back to 4th, but still in contention.  Rutter was working his way through the pack to take 4th place after clashing with Haydon and forcing him into the gravel.  Haydon did well to stay on, but lost two places, relegating him to 6th place, which he held onto until the finish.  Rutter finally caught Kagayama, who made a small mistake on the final lap to let Rutter through for the win.  Reynolds dropped back to 5th, with Smart finishing 3rd and Kiyonari 4th.  James Ellison won the Superbike Cup race from Dennis Hobbs and Jon Kirkham.

RACE 2

This time Smart was in the lead on lap 1, with Kagayama, Rutter, Reynolds, Thomas, and Haydon giving chase.  Unfortunately Kagayama crashed on lap 4, leaving Smart, Rutter and Reynolds to dispute the lead.  Rutter passed Smart on lap 17 to go on to take his second win of the day.  Kiyonari eventually passed Haydon to move into 5th place.  Dean Thomas was having a good race in 4th until his engine gave up on lap 20 with only 2 laps to go to the finish.  This elevated Haydon to 5th, and Gary Mason, who had a steady race, into 6th.   Ellison had his second win of the day from Kirkham and Hobbs.

SUPERSPORT

Leon Camier (Honda) took pole position in qualifying, and was joined on the front row of the grid by Karl Harris (Honda), Michael Laverty (Ducati) and Luke Quigley (Suzuki).  Laverty led from Camier and Jay Vincent (Honda), but crashed at the hairpin on lap 2.  Vincent took over the lead on lap 3, with Camier hot on his heels.  Pere Riba (Kawasaki) held 3rd until he went out on lap 7, leaving Harris in 3rd.  Vincent won from Camier, with Harris 3rd, Tom Sykes (Suzuki) 4th and Quigley 5th.  

SUPERSTOCK

2003 French Superstock Champion Julien Da Costa was drafted into the MSS Discovery Kawasaki team, and he repaid them with a fine win.  Andy Tinsley (Suzuki) was 2nd with Les Shand (Yamaha) 3rd and Lee Jackson (Yamaha) 4th.  Tristan Palmer (Suzuki), double winner from Mallory Park and the Championship leader could only manage 6th place.