Lausitz 11th September 2005
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EMS Racing 2005
EMS
Racing Battle Hard For Fifth Place Finish At Lausitz
EMS Racing had to dig deep in the eighth round of the European Superstock Championship at Lausitz, but still managed to claim a hard earned top five position. Despite being plagued by set-up problems all weekend at the technical German circuit, rider Craig Coxhell refused to give up and claimed fifth place which was good enough to move him back up into third position in the overall championship standings.
After qualifying on the second row in fifth position, Craig was determined to make a strong start and did not disappoint when he fired his EMS Racing Suzuki GSXR-1000 in to second place. Unfortunately it became clear over the next few corners that Craig had some sort of problem as he dropped down to fifth spot over the course of the opening lap.
Unable to match the pace of the leaders, Craig was forced to ride as hard as possible just to stay in contention and focussed on a damage limitation exercise in an effort to salvage as many points as possible. The 22 year old Aussie used his racing pedigree to ride around the problems as best he could and when it mattered was able to fight for position and still come away with a top five finish.
“ I got a good start but as I went in to turn one and braked the front forks bottomed out which put so much force on to the front wheel that it moved the tyre on the rim. From then on the front wheel was out of balance and I was struggling to keep up a good pace. The problem was that as the race went on it was getting worse and by the end of the race it was vibrating so bad that I could hardly see where I was going. There just wasn’t anything I could do and whenever I started really pushing I was getting chatter and nearly losing the front on the way into the corners.” explained Craig.
“ I’m just disappointed because I feel that I should have got third or fourth place. I was struggling with speed today as well, which didn’t help. Usually the bike is strong on speed but today I couldn’t pass anyone on the straights. I don’t know why but we’re going to have to have a good look at the bike before the next race, maybe something got damaged in the crash I had at Assen a couple of weeks ago and that’s affecting it.” he continued
“Despite the disappointing result I’ve actually moved up in the championship standings which is good. It’s going to be hard to win the championship with only two rounds to go but I'll be going all out for race wins and we just have to see what happens.” he concluded.
EMS Racing had to dig deep in the eighth round of the European Superstock Championship at Lausitz, but still managed to claim a hard earned top five position. Despite being plagued by set-up problems all weekend at the technical German circuit, rider Craig Coxhell refused to give up and claimed fifth place which was good enough to move him back up into third position in the overall championship standings.
After qualifying on the second row in fifth position, Craig was determined to make a strong start and did not disappoint when he fired his EMS Racing Suzuki GSXR-1000 in to second place. Unfortunately it became clear over the next few corners that Craig had some sort of problem as he dropped down to fifth spot over the course of the opening lap.
Unable to match the pace of the leaders, Craig was forced to ride as hard as possible just to stay in contention and focussed on a damage limitation exercise in an effort to salvage as many points as possible. The 22 year old Aussie used his racing pedigree to ride around the problems as best he could and when it mattered was able to fight for position and still come away with a top five finish.
“ I got a good start but as I went in to turn one and braked the front forks bottomed out which put so much force on to the front wheel that it moved the tyre on the rim. From then on the front wheel was out of balance and I was struggling to keep up a good pace. The problem was that as the race went on it was getting worse and by the end of the race it was vibrating so bad that I could hardly see where I was going. There just wasn’t anything I could do and whenever I started really pushing I was getting chatter and nearly losing the front on the way into the corners.” explained Craig.
“ I’m just disappointed because I feel that I should have got third or fourth place. I was struggling with speed today as well, which didn’t help. Usually the bike is strong on speed but today I couldn’t pass anyone on the straights. I don’t know why but we’re going to have to have a good look at the bike before the next race, maybe something got damaged in the crash I had at Assen a couple of weeks ago and that’s affecting it.” he continued
“Despite the disappointing result I’ve actually moved up in the championship standings which is good. It’s going to be hard to win the championship with only two rounds to go but I'll be going all out for race wins and we just have to see what happens.” he concluded.