During May Andrew and Team Sennett competed in Rounds 3 and 4 of the National Superstock 600 Championship at Oulton Park and Donington Park.
After Thruxton the next venue couldn’t have been more diverse with the flowing undulating 2.7 mile parkland circuit that is Oulton Park.
Located close to Nantwich in Cheshire, Oulton Park was completely different to the high speed flat layout of Thruxton and required a different approach and set up.
Oulton Park 3rd, 4th, 5th May In first free practice Andrew was immediately on the pace and apart from a slight slip at the chicane posted good times which put him in 8th position.
In first qualifying Andrew had just posted a time that would give him 5th position and was then on another flying lap when he was unfortunately caught up in another riders crash at the chicane and was taken out. He was able to remount and continue to the pits where slight repairs were carried out and he was able to continue but with the handlebars bent he was not able to post anymore fast laps and tumbled down the order to finish the session in 35th place.
The second qualifying session was held on the next day and with the Yamaha repaired although looking a bit second hand he was able to make much better progress and was able to post a time that would give him 16PthP for the race later in the day.
Starting from 16th place Andrew made a good start and was circulating at around his starting position and looking like he would be in the points when he made a mistake at the same chicane that had caused so may problems over the weekend and ran on, loosing 10 places before rejoining the track in 26th place. He battled hard but could only manage to claw back 3 places before the flag finishing in 23rd position.
Donington Park 24th, 25th, 26th After having had to miss the rescheduled Brands Hatch round on the 11th May to previous commitments Andrew and Team Sennett were looking forward to the visit to the Leicestershire circuit which is the home of the British MotoGP.
The weather forecast for the weekend was not good coming after 2 weeks of ideal conditions and the Team was greeted on arrival at Donington by gale force winds and the ever present threat of torrential rainfall.
Andrew took to the 2.50 mile parkland circuit for the first time on Saturday for the free practice session and took the opportunity to gain a feel for the suspension settings and gearing required but posted a lap time that was 28th fastest from the entry of 51.
Later on Saturday the first qualifying session for grid positions was held. The rain held off but the wind continued to increase in force. Andrew set a time that was 25th fastest and only 1.8 seconds off of the pole time which showed just how competitive the class is.
Hoping that the set up data he had from the first sessions would enable him to make changes ready for the second session; however they were completely thrown out when the rain that was predicted came in force on Sunday afternoon and times were well down on the first session but Andrew used the session to try wet weather settings in case race day was wet.
Monday was not wet but the wind was still very strong and conditions were far from ideal for the warm up session but Andrew used the information he had gained to set the 7th quickest time in the session prior to the race.
The race proper was held late in the afternoon and the threat of rain held off as the 40 bikes took to the grid. Andrew made a good start and held 13th position at the first corner. He lost a few places at the first heavy braking chicane but looked comfortable when a red flag incident brought a premature halt to the proceedings.
The race was restarted but this time Andrew did not make such a good start and was baulked at the first corner and then had lots of work to do. He circulated at qualifying pace but had lost too much ground and finished the race in 22nd place.
Andrew is now looking forward to the next round which is to be held at the local venue of Snetterton on the 13th, 14th, 15th June.
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