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Karl Muggeridge (HM Plant Honda) was in action again this weekend at the sun-soaked Brands Hatch circuit in Kent for the eighth round of the British Superbike Championship.
With regular British Superbike stars Glen Richards and Josh Brookes temporarily out through injury, rider changes meant reigning Superstock champion Steve Brogan and World Superbike racer, Karl Muggeridge, who is also returning from injury, took the HM Plant Honda helm in the British Superbike class and showed competitive race performances.
BRITISH SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
Qualifying: Karl Muggeridge 9th / Steve Brogan 14th
Race 1 (20 laps): Karl Muggeridge 4th / Steve Brogan 14th
Race 2 (20 laps): Karl Muggeridge 7th / Steve Brogan 8th
Race 3 (20 laps): Karl Muggeridge 6th / Steve Brogan 11th
Brands Hatch featured a triple-header in the BSB class. The opening Superbike race saw Karl shoot from eighth on the grid to second by the first corner and ride with strong pace to take fourth at the chequered flag in his British Superbike debut.
Sunday's opening Superbike race saw the HM Plant Honda rider make set-up changes to his CBR1000RR Fireblades and make a good start off the line, but with the pack then being closed together when the safety car was deployed on the fifth lap following a crash at Hawthorns, until lap nine. Muggas discovered soon that his tyre was unbalanced and wasn’t able to repeat his yesterdays final position as the wheel was out of balance by 30 gramms.
The third and final BSB race of the weekend witnessed further ‘on the pace' and hard fought performance by Muggas, but with Karl having to settle for sixth due to grip issues after another excellent start from 8th of the grid to second again before the first corner.
Karl Muggeridge (#31)
"We've covered a lot of ground this weekend and really used the qualifying session for testing as I am obviously playing catch up at the moment. We've made various changes to the bike's settings and it has been pretty busy for us trying to find out what works for me. For the first race yesterday we went for a completely new setting with a different shock and link and that worked well. This morning though we have been making more changes including new front forks and the front felt much better and I am really comfortable now. My race positions are not where I want to be as I do believe I could have challenged for a podium, but it's early days and with a bit more time on the bike at Cadwell we can hopefully build on my three top ten finishes from this weekend and get on the podium."
WEEKEND SUMMARY
Havier Beltran, HM Plant Honda Team Manager
"We've come away from this race with some solid race finishes in the Superbike class. Both Steve and Karl have worked excellently and we've had to use a lot of this race weekend for testing and |
