Bathams AJN Racing have had a tough run in recent rounds of the ZYN British Superbike Championship, but remain determined to come back stronger at Cadwell Park on the August Bank Holiday weekend (29/30/31).
The previous few rounds have been a challenge; handling limitations plus a crash during warm up at Oulton Park dented the team and Storm Stacey’s early season run of form. This was followed by a triple DNF at Snetterton despite being one of just three riders to break a decade old lap record and become the fastest ever Ducati to lap the circuit.
It continued to be a challenge for the team at Brands Hatch, scoring just four points due to a reluctant chassis and at Oulton Park it started positively with Stacey setting sub lap record pace and taking a front row start in qualifying followed by a fourth place finish just 0.09s from the podium. However, a crash in warm up halted the momentum.
Thruxton saw a combination of the uncooperative chassis, finishing the opening race in tenth place, with a technical issue in race two, which also ruled Stacey out of the final race of the weekend.
The team’s ambitious project to build a competitive superbike from a road bike and develop it in house with its technical partners is ongoing. The team has already made significant progress in some areas such as the engine and electronics, and continue to work relentlessly to make the chassis more consistent.
Stacey said: “As a racer, of course I wish we had a more consistent bike, but it’s also true that without the opportunity to test in season, we were always going to be doing all our learning in the heat of competition and in full view of the fans and media.
“At difficult times like this, it’s important to take a step back and remind ourselves how far we’ve come since we started. I know it will take more than a run of bad luck and odd wrong turn here and there with the development of the bike to dent my and the team’s motivation. We’re so close and we’re all looking forward to the next four rounds.”
Rutter concluded: “There’s not much I can say about the past few races really apart from the fact that obviously the recent results don’t reflect just how hard we’re all working. A lot of it has just been good old-fashioned bad luck, some if it has been wrong directions taken by me, but that was always a risk when we chose to go our own way and not buy one off the shelf.
“I’m confident we have a very fast and competitive bike, but right now it’s just lacking some consistency in the handling almost certainly due to us reaching the limit of what’s possible with the road bike components that we are still using on it. Our engine is as fast as anyone’s out there, so I know when we make that next breakthrough, we’ll be right there every time.”