Easton soars to maiden BSB victory
Added on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Easton soars to maiden BSB victory
Stuart Easton rode a faultless race in the first of today’s BSB outings at Croft circuit, taking his and Hydrex Honda’s inaugural win in the series.
After he got the jump on championship leader and pole-sitter, Leon Camier, Easton automatically leapt into the lead of the race, where he controlled the pace until he was met by the chequered flag. Behind, after his “surprise” front row start, Josh Brookes immediately dived into second, with Camier’s Airwaves Yamaha teammate, James Ellison, third. Following a difficult getaway as the red lights extinguished, Camier was left down in sixth and chasing down Chris Walker and Simon Andrews.
Eager to make ground and take advantage of his strong start, as the race developed Ellison was the man to watch, soon chasing down Brookes and edging away from the pursuing MSS Colchester Kawasaki of Andrews.
As the top three began reeling one another in at the front of the pack, Ryuichi Kiyonari was a man on the move in sixth, progressing on his eleventh place grid start, eventually roaring to fourth as the chequered flag fell.
Back at the front, Ellison had managed to muscle his way past the HM Plant Honda of Brookes, and soon began edging ever closer to Easton, determined to take the prestigious top spot away from the Hydrex Honda rider. As the race developed the top duo gradually pulled away, with Ellison piling on the pressure.
As the battle at the front was progressing, Camier experienced a hairy moment when he went straight on at Tower bend whilst trying to work his way past Andrews. Luckily managing to rejoin the race, the championship leader was forced to join at the very rear of the field, giving him plenty of work to do.
Just three laps from the end saw dramam ensue for some of the riders – starting with Andrews. As he headed into Sunny on lap seventeen he slipped off of his Kawasaki, leaving him to play spectator. One lap down the road and Chris Walker suffered a broken handle bar, which sent him heavily off the track as he headed into the Complex. He was seemingley unhurt, however the same cannot be said for his Motorpoint/Henderson Yamaha. The penultimate lap also saw Sylvain Guintoli fall down at the Hairpin, bringing his race to an abrupt end.
As the chequered flag fell to conclude the first of two races at the North Yorkshire venue, Easton was crowned winner, for the first time, with Ellison an extremely close second.
Camier had fought his way through to sixth by the final lap, with an impressive ride through the field after his earlier off.
Rain had been threatening throughout the opening twenty lap race, meaning it could be upon the BSB circus for race two; and with the accompanied difficulties that many of the riders faced during race one, the second race is set to be as thrilling as ever.
Commenting on his first victory in the series, an ecstatic Easton said: “It’s great, to win a BSB race is good; it’s been one of my goals for a long time and this has been the first year where I’ve had a package where I can go and try and win a race and put a season together really. It’s nice to get a win, etch one on the board; all of my heroes have had them and it’s nice to get one on there with the boys.”
Second place Ellison said: “Stuart had the pace pretty much through the whole race, but there were a couple areas where I was quicker and a couple where he was quicker. What time I’d make out the back he’d make up on me down the start/finish straight so I was playing catch up. I was weighing it up for the last couple laps, and thought if he doesn’t make any mistakes I know where I can make a move, just trying to line everything up through the fast section. I caught him up on that last lap, I thought I’d try him around Sunny In but there was a yellow flag out so you can’t try anything. Then going around Sunny In, Sunny Out I lost the front end and that’s when my leg came out. But [Stuart] just kept it smooth and didn’t make any mistakes, full credit to him he rode his heart out.”
Third place Brookes said: “I wanted to be on the podium but not like that, I felt like I was just hanging in there I didn’t have a lot to bring to the race. The first two guys took off and went, and then Simon Andrews came past me and he was running faster than I was. I tried to stay with him and I had a few moments when I was nearly off myself, it’s so bumpy here and with the extra wind we’ve had today I was just struggling today to really run the pace. Then Andrews went down and it meant I had third, I was really happy to just be in third and then I had Kiyonari breathing down my neck. I didn’t really know how hard to push it because a few people had been going down; I just wanted to stay on board and bring it home. I’m happy to get the HM Plant Honda back on the podium but I want to be a bit stronger next time.”
Mirror.co.uk Cup winner, Gary Mason, after finishing eighth overall as well, said: “All due respect to the Quay Garage Honda it’s been doing me proud. We had a brake issue throughout that race so hopefully we can solve it for the second one, because I couldn’t run the consistent low 21′s [lap times] that we’d been doing all weekend, so hopefully in race two my pace should be a lot hotter. It was very frustrating but very happy to be battling with Tommy and all of them. Leon was pushing hard obviously and making quite a few mistakes, but big respect to him.”
