EMS Racing 2005

Solid Points For EMS Racing At Scorching Misano

EMS Racing secured another impressive result and valuable championship points at the fourth round of the European Superstock Championship held at Misano in Italy. Onboard the EMS Racing Suzuki GSXR-1000, Craig Coxhell battled through the scorching temperatures to take a determined sixth place finish and consolidate fourth place in the overall championship standings.

After struggling with bike set-up during qualifying, Craig started the race in eighth place and on the second row of the grid, but that didn t stop him making a strong start and make a break with the leading group. Despite 30-degree air temperatures and 37-degree track temperatures, Craig went even faster than he d managed in qualifying but unfortunately it wasn t enough to stay in contention with the trio of riders who started to ease away at the front. Instead the 22 year old Australian was left to fight it out for fourth position with new championship leader Massimo Roccoli and Suzuki man, Alessandro Polita.

Craig looked set to make his trademark strong finish to the race and up his pace in the closing laps, but began struggling with excess front tyre wear and was forced to reduce his pace. At the end of the 15 lap race, Craig claimed sixth spot and ten valuable championship points.

I m pretty disappointed with the result, but on the other hand I m glad that I was able to get that high after the problems we had in qualifying. I got a pretty good start but the top three got away and I just wasn t able to match their pace today. I was behind Roccoli and really wanted to beat him from a championship point of view, he was actually spinning the rear up a lot so I felt confident I would be able to pass him and pull a gap by the end of the race. Unfortunately with about three laps to go my front tyre started sliding really badly and by the end of the race the tyre was destroyed. explained Craig.

The championship is still pretty tight and it s the three guys in front of me that are going to be feeling the pressure. There are still six rounds of the championship to go and apart from Lausitz in Germany and Assen in Holland I ve got experience of the rest of the tracks. The next round is in Brno and we tested there before Misano so I ve already got a good base setting for the bike and then in August it s Brands Hatch and I know the track well so I m hoping for a good result there. I m determined to win a couple of races and with the championship being so close, that would will be enough to get me up front. he continued.

Misano 25-26th June 2005