The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Ben Stafford had reason to be cheerful despite suffering a bike-wrecking crash at Snetterton over the weekend.
Round five of the Dickies British Supersport Championship took Saracen’s Head speedster Stafford to the Norfolk circuit for only the second time since making the transition from supermoto.
He managed a 13th placed finish on his Silicone Engineering Kawasaki in race one, before crashing out badly in the second after suffering with handling issues.
With Snetterton renowned for being a difficult circuit with the very fast sections and the tricky slower sections it was always going to be difficult.
Most teams had taken advantage of the official test there two weeks prior to the meeting and were armed with a decent set-up to start.
Unfortunately, due to the team’s involvement in the road racing scene, Stafford did not attend and was therefore searching for the right set-up.
Free practice one (FP1) was hit by wet weather blowing in at the last minute. Stafford did his usual and set the eighth-fastest time in the difficult conditions.
Desperate for dry conditions to achieve the set up when the second session came – and on a dry track – Stafford struggled badly and at the end of the 30 minute test was still uncomfortable to say the least.
Radical changes again to the bike overnight were again in vain as, just before the start of qualifying on Saturday, the wet weather came again.
Unfortunately for Stafford, he joined the session when the wet conditions turned into a monsoon and he was unable to get a good time in, leaving him in a lowly 16th on the grid for the race.
After a good start in the sprint race, Stafford made his way through the pack to tenth place, but was clearly struggling to ride the dry conditions.
And, after a slight mistake on the penultimate lap, he eventually crossed the line in 13th, leaving the young gun disappointed.
The team mechanics again worked all day to try to sort out the bike’s handling problem ahead of Sunday’s main race, but it was clear after only a few laps that the bike was still very difficult to turn in and trust on the high speed corners.
Indeed, after pushing for five of the 15 laps Stafford eventually cartwheeled out into the scenery in a big way and destroyed the Kawasaki to end his weekend.
The South Holland ace emerged unscathed from the accident and, on reflection, he was left to take the positives.
The class is proving extremely competitive and boasts some very experienced riders which he is running alongside and mixing it with.
The Silicone team left the circuit on Sunday evening and travelled to the Isle of Man on Monday to compete in the Southern 100, with Stafford’s team-mate Dean Harrison in action.
Upon their return this weekend they will only have three days to build a machine from a bare frame in time for the round six meeting at Thruxton on July 22-24.
