Racing News & Updates.

British Supersport Championship, Round 7, Rockingham

As the race bike had now been prepared by Bob Farnham, the team was looking forward to a successful weekend. However, things did not get off to a good Start!

Friday's practice sessions were cancelled after the first Supersport session due to three serious crashes as riders touched the recently painted white lines. As a result, further sessions were cancelled until the problem was sorted. Organisers worked continuously through the night and Saturday morning to make the circuit safe. It was not until 1.00pm on Saturday afternoon, when announcements were made, and it was discovered that all support races would be cancelled and the TV coverage races would go ahead, however, there would be no qualifying, and grid positions would be determined on points total.

As a result this placed Mark 19th on the grid. The team was disappointed as the Practice Sessions proved that Mark could qualify (without qualifying tyres) in 11th position. The team was hopeful of a top ten finish, however, Mark would have to match the same performance he gave from Brands Hatch.

Race day arrived and Mark made a few changes to his set-up for the 20lap race. The race was underway and Mark did not get a good start, however, after the first lap he made up a place and he progressed steadily, picking off one rider at a time. By lap 12 he found himself in 11th position, just behind Shane Norval and although Mark made a few moves to pass, Shane managed to take the 10th spot back. After this, Mark's tyres began to wear and the gap for 10th position slowly slipped away. A final position of 11th was determined.

The team was impressed with Mark's riding ability and Mark was extremely happy with the enhanced performance of the Carbontek Yamaha. As a result, it was agreed that the 2nd bike would make a visit to Bob Farnham and the team would attend Mondello Park in Ireland on 20th July.  

British Superbikes 2003 - Round 6 - Brands Hatch.

Round six of the BSB series took the team to Brands Hatch in Kent.

There have been some changes to Carbontek racing in the four week break since Knockhill. Colin Davies is no longer preparing the bikes for the team, and Carbontek have signed up a superbike rider also!

Mark Burr supersport rider.

The plan for Thursday was for Mark and new technician Roy to drive down to Carbontek HQ in sunny Surrey and put the race bikes on the new dyno they have installed, to see what power we had and where we need to improve Then go straight to Brands just down the road in Kent, to set up the truck and awning to begin the weekends qualifying/racing. Due to traffic difficulties this was not possible, so the dyno time would have to wait! Fridays practice finished with Mark down in 20th place and once more identifying lack of power as the problem!

Also to compound this problem a new foot rest assembly was catching on the rear swinging arm preventing full movement of the rear suspension. Saturday with the foot rest problem rectified by Roy, Mark went out again to test the bike before final qualifying that afternoon. Despite going faster he slipped back to 23rd position with a time of 1:32.172 which was 2.585 off of the pole time. After qualifying we put both of Marks bikes on the dyno in the paddock and the results were not good! We now know that Mark has been performing miracles on the bikes as they were over 10 h/p down on the fastest Yamahas let alone the Hondas!

With 36 riders on the grid Mark would start the race in the middle of row 6, so a good start was needed!

Despite soaring temperatures all week Sunday brought rain and lots of it!

Most riders dislike racing in the wet but Mark feels if it rains it gives him an edge, so with the lack of power not going to go away for this weekend it was a welcome sight!

As race time dawned though the rain packed up and the race was a dry one.

Mark made a good start and moved up to 19th by the start of lap 2!

He was looking good and had the race pace to get well into the points but the bike jumped out of gear half way through lap 2 dropping him to last place.

Mark got his head down and pulled through the field to finish 19th with a best lap of 1:32.116.

After the race a dejected Mark was consoled when team boss and Carbontek owner Nigel Purdon promised that he would get the bikes retuned for Rockingham after putting them both on his own dyno back at Carbontek HQ and confirming the Problem. So the race is on to get both bikes ready for Rockingham July 5th/6th watch this space……..

Team boss Nigel Purdon with grid girl Stacey.

British Supersport Championship, Round 5, Knockhill

Friday's Practice sessions brought the end of Round 5 before it started! The afternoon session, as usual for Knockhill, brought the rain. Mark went out with his wet weather confidence. 30mins into the session and he was lying in 3rd position with less than half a second off Pole.

Just 10mins to go, Mark approached the tight hairpin, was going down his gears when his foot slipped off the footpeg. The "Profile 22" Yamaha had slipped into neutral, Mark lost control, and ran off track into the tyre wall!

Early indications thought that Mark had a number of injuries, including a broken shoulder / collarbone and wrist. Thankfully, the X-ray's confirmed that no bones had been broken, just severely sprained. Due to the pain experienced by Mark this morning he had an examination by the circuit doctor today, it would appear that a couple of ribs have been broken, which explains the difficulty in breathing.

Although Mark is disappointed about this weekend, he is looking forward to the second half of the racing season, which returns on 22nd June at Brands Hatch.

British Supersport Championship, Round 4, Oulton Park

Oulton Park in Cheshire hosted the Bank Holiday meeting and the 1st qualifying session was held on the wet Saturday afternoon. Due to Mark's wet weather riding ability, he held pole position for the first 15 minutes of the session. For the remaining minutes, Mark bounced around the grid positions, finally settling in 3rd spot. The 2nd session on the dry Sunday brought disappointment. On Mark's 1st lap, the front mud guard fell onto the tyre, as a result, due to the blue smoke, many thought the engine had blown. Mark returned to pit lane to remove the damaged parts. He then continued with the session, but was struggling to get inside the top 20. With 5 minutes to go, he went in for his qualifying tyres, but there was a problem with the front mud guard, this was rectified but time had ticked away. Unfortunately, he was only able to put in 1 lap on the qualifiers, which placed him 17th on the grid.

Race day brought a start where a couple of places were dropped. After 3 laps Mark had managed to regain his grid position. He was going for 16th when he made a mistake, ran wide and lost 3 places. Now lying in 20th spot, he fought back up to 16th, however, the laps ran out, the chequered flag was shown and Mark narrowly missed out on a point scoring position.

British Supersport Championship, Round 3, Thruxton

The 3rd round of the British Supersport Championship took Mark to the well liked circuit of Thruxton.

Although the Carbontek Yamaha is still suffering with straight line power problems, Mark's first qualifying session placed him on the 2nd row of the grid in 6th position, being the 2nd highest Yamaha. The second session was very exciting as Mark was fighting for position. With just 3 minutes to go Mark jumped onto the 1st row of the grid in 4th, but there was still time for other riders to put in their fast laps. As the minutes ticked away, Mark dropped to 8th, which would be his final grid position.

On race day, Mark was in 9th position from the start, however, he quickly regained his 8th spot by the end of the first lap. Mark battled hard and was not willing to let the riders, immediately in front of him, gain a lead. He kept on the power around the long corners and he slowly made up ground. Mark made up a couple of places when Leon Haslam and Michael Laverty suffered mechanical problems. On the 4th lap Mark cleanly passed Simon Andrews and he was now lying in 5th position. Due to the Padgett's team of John Crockford and Adrian Coates battling between themselves, Mark gained upon them fairly quickly. On the 8th lap Mark goes for 4th place and there is a coming together with Adrian Coates. Although Mark is sent into a crash, he rapidly gets on his bike. A few places are lost, but he continues in order to gain vital points. Unfortunately, his front brake lever has been bent, and as Mark attempts to pull it into a place where he can operate it, the lever snaps off in his hand. As a result Mark is unable to continue at a safe enough pace to gain points, an unfortunate end to a promising start.