A weekend to forget for Zanotti at Brands Hatch
AARON Zanotti, Loughborough’s British Superbike challenger struggled to recover from a series of blows at round six of the championship at Brands Hatch.
A low speed crash early in the second free practice followed by an engine blow-up on the first lap of qualifying left the Platform Hire R1 pilot with little set up time and last place on the grid for race one.
From the green light Zanotti was hot on the heels of Winfield, with Andy Reid’s Tyco BMW, Jessop and Sylvain Guintoli’s Factory Suzuki ahead.
Winfield, pushing hard to fend off Zanotti’s advances, made a mistake at Hawthorne, at the end of the back straight, crashing heavily.
Zanotti set off after the three bikes just a few seconds ahead but pulled in to the pits 9 laps in whilst in 21st place, with clutch problems.
Byrne stole the win at his home round, coming from eighth at the halfway mark in a master-class of riding with Linfoot and Haslam within one second behind.
Again, consigned to the back of the pack for the start of race two, the local ace nevertheless showed more pace – staying with Jessop, Guintoli and Reid for the first third of the race before the trio slipped gradually ahead.
But despite his best efforts and a personal best half a second quicker at the Kent circuit, Zanotti could only bring the Platform Hire Yamaha home in 20th place.
‘Shakey’ Byrne did the double from flag to flag in the second outing, with five seconds to spare. Ellison clawed his way from fifth to take second with Christian Iddon third.
“I was optimistic we could challenge for points at Brands Hatch,” Zanotti told the Echo, “but we lost so much track time after my off at Druids in the second session.
“I had just finished my out lap when the engine failed in qualifying. I felt and heard it going and managed to grab the clutch before it seized solid, but with no lap time it meant we were last on the grid and lost even more track time.
“I found quite a good set-up for the Platform Hire R1 but we had no time to see how tyre wear would effect long term pace.
“I had a few issues after the crash and fitting another engine in race one, but resolved most of it for the second race and had quite a good pace for the early stages but the rear started sliding after that and I was losing a second per lap.
“We will be getting the bike thoroughly sorted before Thruxton in 10 days time.”