Kneen gives Cookstown/B.E. Racing a NW200 top ten finish WITH the 2014 North West 200 race grids packed full of factory supported outfits, privateer teams were always going to find top ten finishes hard to come by. However, Cookstown/B.E. Racing brought their good Cookstown 100 and Tandragee 100 form up to the blustery north Ulster coastline and picked up a number of impressive results which team owner John Burrows was justifiably proud of - and but for bad luck in the two Superbike races things could have been so much better. Former North West 200 rostrum finisher Burrows explained: Its not until you look at the entry lists for all the races that you realise that the North West attracts so many international quality riders and factory teams and even making the top twenty is an achievement. Not everything went well for us but thanks to Dan Kneens brave riding in difficult conditions, and the hard work of the whole team, we picked up four top fifteen finishes including a top ten Superstock result. With any luck we could have been celebrating two top ten Superbike finishes as well, but Lady Luck didnt shine on us during the two feature events. In Superbike race one, Dan had the big Cookstown/B.E. Racing Suzuki in sixth place at the end of the first lap and moved ahead of Michael Rutter on lap two only to have his top five hopes dashed by a chain failure. In the second Superbike race, Dan had passed race one winner William Dunlop and was progressing towards the top six when he had a big front end slide and clipped the kerb at the Juniper chicane. With the front intermediate tyre starting to lose grip in the drying conditions, he was forced to retired by safety concerns. Burrows continued: Despite the Superbike DNFs, we are all happy enough. Dan took a fine tenth in Saturdays Superstock race and was just outside the top ten in three other races. He was eleventh in Thursdays Supertwins race, thirteenth in Thursdays Supersport race and he took the Cookstown/B.E. Racing Honda CBR 600 RR to eleventh in Saturdays Supersport thriller. A clutch problem with our 650 Kawasaki robbed him of a good finish in Saturdays Supertwins four lapper. Well now move forward to the Isle of Man TT Races with a positive frame of mind. Well go there on the back of fantastic Cookstown 100 and Tandragee 100 wins and top ten North West pace. Dan cant wait to get racing on his home Manx turf and Im certain we will be competitive against the factory teams in all classes.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 12:17:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015