Category: British Superbikes

Pete Extance sat down with us at Oulton Park, to talk all things 2017 and his season thus far, as well as what is beyond the season’s end and his plans for next season. As well as that, we talk a lot about the bad luck of this year and the injuries that have seemingly plagued the team since Knockhill, in June.

Since we last sat down, things haven’t been stellar. Has it been difficult since Knockhill?

It’s been a very difficult season so far. It started last time we were at Oulton Park when Leon crashed into the back of James Ellison. Then, Leon came back to Knockhill and unfortunately, fractured his skull and the top of his vertebrae. This led to him being very stiff at Snetterton and whilst he did come back, it was a painful comeback for him. From then on in, it’s been very up and down. The momentum has seemingly stopped going – until we came here! He was full of confidence and our results have been really good this weekend.

For Luke, we actually think that he should’ve won at Knockhill – he was fastest by half a second. He came away with a 2nd and a 4th and whilst that wasn’t ideal, Luke led the championship when we left Knockhill. The momentum, again, has not been with us on Luke’s side either. He had a warm-up crash at Snetterton, which resulted in unfortunately having brake issues. It is difficult to test brakes and each time we thought we fixed them, we found out we hadn’t! This persisted for three races. Going to Thruxton, he was full of confidence. In FP3, he caught the back wheel on the grass going down the main straight and unfortunately, that resulted in him having a broken vertebrae – so both riders have had similar injuries. Luke is still struggling now and I think we maybe came back a fortnight too early. Luke really is in pain in the fast corners, which is why he pulled out of race one and opted not to run in race two.

Were you surprised that Luke’s crash in FP3 at Thruxton led to such bad injuries?

We were definitely surprised that it happened to us again but I guess it is the luck of the draw. That crash could’ve resulted in Luke not being collected by the bike and then walking away. I’m a firm believer that the Dainese suit does protect you and next year, Luke’s Spidi suit will have an airbag too. I think that will help a lot of riders.

Do you regret Luke coming back so soon?

I don’t we can in all honesty. It was a riders decision and his dad’s decision to come back. However, going into race three at Silverstone, he was tying on points with Jake Dixon, so on another day, it could’ve been Jake crashing and Luke finishing high enough to get in the Showdown. Of course, it is difficult with hindsight but I believe firmly that the right decision was made and again, last weeks decision was also down to the Mossey family.

Will team orders be employed – as we spoke about them last time?

Luke will definitely get involved and hopefully get on the podium and upset some other riders and their positions. Being realistic, we have to look at Brands Hatch and not Assen, as Luke is still in pain. It isn’t really about team orders, it’s about Luke showing that he is a team player and that if he was ahead of Leon, then he wouldn’t hold him up and he would help him as much as possible. I have never been in this position so we will just have to wait and see.

With you not being in this position before, does that make it even harder?

It does but I think the races will unfold. We aren’t going to be running riders out wide and slowing our race down to annoy them – you can’t mess about with 220BHP Superbikes. If Luke was leading and Leon had to win to take the title, we would be foolish not to allow Leon through because that is what teams are about. Luke’s contract for 2018 does not rely on helping Leon. Luke has shown us enough this season – his professionalism has been superb. He has demonstrated to me that he deserves a ride for next year with us and that he can make a Showdown place.

Does Luke not getting into the Showdown take pressure off you as far not having to worry about which rider wins?

It definitely does! It isn’t a stress that I want but you have to look at the championship this year, Luke hasn’t been out of the Showdown placings until Silverstone was over. Unfortunately, there has been too many crashes and DNFs and too many injuries. However, it has made him stronger, hungrier and more determined than ever to deliver a successful 2018.

On the subject of 2018, what are your plans going into next season?

We are in contact with both riders at the moment. Nothing is signed and sealed as there is a lot of movement in the paddock at the moment. Our ideal scenario is to keep continuity but it is a very tough part of the season. On Wednesday the 27th of September, we will be announcing our plans for 2018.

The fact that Leon was wanted by Pucetti didn’t bother us too much. We spoke about it as a team. Leon’s contract is with Kawasaki but also it is with the team. It had to take its course and I didn’t have any influence on Leon leaving or staying. I just hope that the guys we employ to look after Leon are doing a good enough job for Leon. If we can win it this year and Leon stays, I’d love to defend it next season. If Leon doesn’t stay with the team, then lets focus on winning it anyway!

There have been three or four riders out of the top nine in the championship that have been in touch. Whether that is a genuine enquiry about riding for us or using it as a leverage against their own teams, I’m not sure. It’s great for us that we are being looked at by riders but at the same time, we need to concentrate on the remainder of this season too!

Aside from riders, are there any changes in your team – e.g, machinery, re-entering a support class?

Not at all, everything stays the same. Our contract is with Kawasaki and that also stipulates that we can’t do a support class. The plan is to become championship winners with Leon and also manufacturers champions with Luke, Leon and Jake Dixon’s points too. Whilst we are the official team, it has been great that Jake has played his part too.

The Isle of Man TT and the North West 200 are still being spoken about. We have never missed the TT since we’ve been running a team but again, I can’t sit here and categorically say that we have or haven’’t signed a rider for the roads but we would like to shortly.

Would it be annoying for you if a more ‘privateer’ team in Lee Hardy’s outfit beat you to the title?

As a team owner, that would be annoying! However, the championship is so close and Jake is at the top of his game. The machinery is very similar and I believe we may even share the same engine tuners. When you have a rider like Jake, it is always going to be tough. We are looking to be the Kawasaki team that wins the championship but if we aren’t, then I will be the first to congratulate the crew at RAF Regular and Reserves!

Image by Peter Backhurst.

Danny Buchan will ride the FS3 Kawasaki for the 11th round of the British Superbike Championship at Assen in The Netherlands. The 24-year-old currently rides for Steve Buckenham’s Morello Kawasaki team in the National Superstock 1000 championship, which he leads by 15 points.

The FS3 Kawasaki team have been without their main rider, Billy McConnell, since he crashed out spectacularly at Thruxton, back in August.

Former British Supersport champion Luke Stapleford filled in for the team at Silverstone, as he had no World Supersport commitments. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to deputise at Oulton Park.

Danny Buchan will be making a welcome return the British Superbike championship, where he last made an appearance on Dave Tyson’s Tsingtao Kawasaki last season, finishing a high of 11th at Cadwell Park, on an older Kawasaki compared to others on the grid. The ‘Basildon Bullet’ has 10 victories to his name so far this season in the National Superstock 1000 championship. Buchan has two podiums to his name in British Superbikes, with 3rd and 2nd in 2015 – also riding a Kawasaki.

It is no secret that the former National Superstock 1000 rider wants to return to British Superbike, with FS3 providing the ideal chance for him to showcase his ability on a Superbike. Some pundits have criticised Danny for supposedly ‘not being able to ride without traction control’.

The Assen round starts on the 29th of September, with main race day commencing on the 1st of October. Race one starts at 11:15 and race two from 15:30 British time. Both races are scheduled to be run over 18 laps.

Thanks to Peter Backhurst for the image.

At Cadwell Park, I caught up with Dave Tyson – the Team Owner of the Tempus MV Agusta team. A fixture of the paddock, Dave has cut back his efforts in 2017 to focus on delivering Jack Kennedy a solid Supersport bike and so far, it’s worked well. In this exclusive interview, he talks to us about his season so far, his 2018 plans and why he believes there are other alternatives to bringing in Moto2.

Sum up your season so far – a few dramas along the way but you’re back up there now.

At round one, we probably weren’t at our best as we had a few things to sort out due to it being our first proper run at things. I think Jack needed a bit more time on the bike as well. After that, we persevered and every weekend, we have something new on the bike. We had changed to a different engine builder at Knockhill and that has really progressed the bike. We have a little bit more power and a bit more drive out of the corners so the results have started to come now.

Jack has been going really strongly since Oulton Park, where he got his first podium of the season before he went off to the World Supersport championship. Since coming back, we’ve been on the podium in almost all the races.

Did Jack going to World Supersport help him?

Keeping him on a bike was a good thing and that was why we allowed him to do it. He was with a good team in Profile Racing and it’d make sense for him to do it, as going to WSS is a good step forward. He went to circuits like Donington Park and Imola so they were worthwhile circuits. Has it helped Jack? I think so, yes. It was more about him getting track time than racing in the world championship. The fact that he went so well was a massive benefit. He beat a former British Supersport champion who happened to be his teammate and has come back with a point to prove. He wants to be back in that series and he deserves to be there next year.

Do you think his experience in British Superbikes with Team WD40 help him?

I think when he was riding for WD40, it made him really appreciate a bike that works for him. Obviously, he had a tough couple of years but our bikes are working for him and he can extract the best out of it. He wanted to show everyone just how good he is and he is absolutely doing that with us, whereas he wasn’t able to on the WD40 Kawasaki for whatever reason. He came to us to show that the last two years aren’t the true Jack Kennedy and he’s already done that. A lot of people have criticised us and said that our bike isn’t good enough but, we’ve won more races than Kawasaki this year so yeah – I’ll go with that!

Have you experienced any mechanical issues like the World Supersport MV Agusta teams seem to have?

Personally, I believe that a lot of the problems are down to electronics. We tried to talk MV into using Motec because we tried a kit one and that was horrific. They chose not to use Motec and have gone down their own route. We obviously use Motec which works fantastically well. We don’t get too many issues with the bike – we had an engine problem on Friday at Cadwell Park but that’s our first since Assen last year. Overall, it’s pretty decent. We actually have to fly over to Italy very soon to spend some time with the MV factory with our engine specs and help them out a little bit. They’ve been very good to us over the years and I think we are in a position to repay them a little bit.

Has cutting your effort from other support series to solely focus on Jack helped?

I think it is the best thing we’ve done to be quite honest. We should’ve probably done it a few years ago. The MV in Superstock trim is the best bike there is. If you get the right team to run them, they could be a mega bike. They have 130BHP, quick-shifter, blipper, traction control etc. Would I go back to the other support categories? No I wouldn’t. I’d like to get another Supersport bike out but that won’t be happening this year. Our target at the beginning of the year was to have two of them out there, however, things transpired that actually, one was the final figure. I absolutely wouldn’t put one out now because the team is perfect and I wouldn’t want to bring in another variable with the potential of more stress, work and upset. If a rider is happy, he’s fast. That’s the case with Jack and we want to keep it that way. We bring new bits to the bike every weekend, some big, some little but they all help and we can quickly see if they work or not.

A one bike set-up has been brilliant because we can spend all our time, resources and efforts on that one bike. If you look at the Appleyard set up, it work brilliantly because they have one bike in Supersport and one in Superstock 600. The rule used to be that you’d have a progression ladder if you were a top team. Now, because the money isn’t there to do that, teams just focus on what they want to be exceptional at.

Is there a plan to return to BSB soon?

I wouldn’t run an MV Agusta Superbike – that would definitely not happen. If we went down the Superbike route, we’d have to pick a different manufacturer. I don’t know what the future lies for us at the minute but if you’d have asked me when the Summer break came along and everyone else was at the TT, I would’ve said no because I didn’t expect to be sat here. That’s because our truck was broken in to. We’ve got to where we are off the back of a lot of hard work. The lads have been very good and we’ve been very fortunate. We have had a new sponsor come on board and they’ve put some money into the team and I hope that it can continue. In the next few weeks, we will make a decision on our 2018 plans.

Would you be looking to retain Jack Kennedy?

It all depends on what we do. If Jack has a desire to get back to World championship level and if the guys at Profile Racing want to go ahead and have him do that, that’s fine. If we go back to Superbike and Jack wants to do that too, then we have to have a conversation about that progression. Whatever he wants to do, we will listen. We won’t stand in his way if he wants to go to another team. He’s a great person to work with, his dad is fantastic and hopefully, we will work together next year.

Would you move to a Moto2 bike if the series goes full Moto2?

I am not spending £50,000 to go and buy a competitive Kalex. I’m not against Moto2 at all, I understand why the organisers want to go to Moto2. My view on it is very simple. Supersport has only ever been three bikes. Over the course of the years, it’s been Yamaha, Kawasaki and Triumph. We had a bit of Honda in WSS and still do. Now, in the UK, we have few Triumphs. However, we have MV Agusta which is still available to buy, we have Kawasakis that are still competitive and Yamaha – who just brought out their new bike! We still have three manufacturers and OK, Kawasaki don’t make the ZX6 anymore. However, you also have Suzuki who still make their bikes and if you look at Lahti, I’d say the Suzuki is capable too!

There may be a rule change that needs to happen to ensure that those three bikes remain competitive but to have three manufacturers building bikes, it is the same as we’ve always had. It’s no different. No disrespect to the Moto2 bikes in our races now but the one from Tony Scott is a bespoke built machine and not really a Moto2 bike. It’s a trick bike but it’s not a Moto2 bike. Calling it a Moto2 bike isn’t actually factually correct. It is a development bike for a championship.

If you wanted to run a Moto2 bike, you’d need more people to work on the chassis dynamics because they’re very separate to what we have now. The electronics are all standard so nothing would change there. But, you can’t go and buy a new Honda engine for the bike so actually, it’s already dead before it has started. Instead of going down the Moto2 route, look at what we already have. Protect the three manufacturers we already have, engage with them properly and get them on board.

The only reason that the Moto2 bike is there is because numbers were down at the start of the season. Martin Halsall was late to the party, Keith Farmer wasn’t in it and we hadn’t booked in either. Tony Scott proposes two bikes and Stuart Higgs can’t turn it down because it boosts numbers.

The bigger question should be: why don’t we adopt a WSBK format? You have full blown Supersport bikes with an ‘Evo’ class, totally get rid of a separate Superstock 600 class and replace it with a Supersport 300 series. WSBK made a definitive move last year. Get rid of the Stock 600 and replace it with Supersport 300. This year, there’s 37 bikes on the grid. They’ve done something right!

It offers low budget racing in Supersport 300 for the guys in the standard class Moto3 championship who can’t afford a £70,000 KTM Moto3. Surely that would be a better solution? You can run a Supersport 300 team on a very low budget. I think there are other questions to be had instead of everyone jumping on the band-wagon going ‘Moto2 this, Moto2 that’. All the keyboard warriors come out to play unfortunately.

The Moto2 thing is going to happen but you must look at cost. There’s a three year-old Kalex on Ebay today, ex-MarcVDS and it is priced at £50,000. No team in this Supersport paddock would spend that amount of money on it. You’ve then got to buy a load of spares and the end cost will be around £100,000. For £100,000, I’d go and do Superbikes!

You have to look at it logically. There’s a big field in Superstock 600. Amalgamate them with Supersport, create an ‘Evo’ championship for a couple of years and let that find it’s own natural progression. Suzuki are talking about bringing out their new 600cc bike, along with MV Agusta and the new Yamaha. If you have those three, then you have a great championship.

Image by Gareth Davies of Full Factory Photography

The owner of Morello Kawasaki, Steve Buckenham, has confirmed that Danny Buchan will not feature in the team’s plans for 2018, whether it be in Superbike or Superstock. In this exclusive interview, Buckenham talks about a possible return to Superbikes, how he rates the new Superstock 1000 format, his personal opinion on Fraser Rogers’ season and just why Danny Buchan is not part of their team next season.

With Danny Buchan in your team, you must have known you’d be competitive from the start?

Everybody assumed that Danny would come in and as the 2014 champion, do very well. We had Josh Elliott and he gave us the 2015 championship but look at him this year. Until Danny got on the bike for pre-season testing, no one really knew how he would get on. I think even from Danny’s point of view, it’s been a bit harder than what he thought. This year, we have moved on a lot and that is because of Chris Sayle who builds the bikes, Sam Palmer and Ryan who work on the bikes and Danny who rides the bike very well. We are very happy with what Danny is doing.

However, with Fraser, it is a different story. I thought he’d be doing a lot better. He’s got nowhere near his times in places where he went well last year and I personally think that is down to a little bit of pressure coming from Danny. He may not admit it, but I believe it is.

I think it is a negative to bring in a rider of such stature in Danny Buchan, as I thought Fraser would have learnt from him instead. Fraser is used to being the star kid in the team; he was number one last year. Having said it’s a negative, I’d do it all again. Fraser went to Assen and competed in the IDM last week and I said to him, “you’ll do well over there”. It’s fast and it’s flowing and he we was doing well until he was taken out. Anything that is fast and flowing, Fraser will be fast. His downfall is that he is riding the bike like it is a 600cc Supersport bike. Danny’s bike has got hardly any scrape marks on the fairing but Fraser’s has got loads, because he carries so much more lean angle. Fraser could be on full throttle and Danny could be on three quarter throttle, yet Danny is still quicker.

Have you exceeded or under achieved in relation to pre-season expectations?

With Danny, he’s done exactly what I thought Danny would do. However, as I’ve said, in Danny’s eyes, it has been a bit harder than what he thought. With Fraser, I believe that he has really under achieved. Although he has gone quicker at some tracks, like Brands Hatch, that is all I can say. He has been disappointing this year. I compare Fraser now to how Danny was when he was 21. The lad has undoubted talent and bags of it but he just needs to sit and listen and take things on board. He is probably one of the fastest riders in the paddock on his day.

There is no favouritism at all. Not in any way, shape or form. Another reason why he may be struggling is because this National Superstock 1000 championship is one of the most competitive, if not the most competitive, in the paddock.

What did you expect from Fraser in 2017?

I expected Fraser to be on the podium and I expected him to be Danny’s wingman. It is his second year with us and I would’ve expected him to be doing more than what he’s done thus far. For example, on Friday at Cadwell Park he was doing 1.29s but on Saturday he was in the 1.30s. The team has stayed the same as last year so the bottom line is that Fraser is under pressure and struggling.

What have been the main challenges this season?

The competition! 100% competition, nothing else. Bike wise, Danny was a bit unlucky at Snetterton and also at Brands Hatch, as he was running 20HP down. They ran it on the dyno and the results showed that it had lost 20HP. I won’t go into why that happened but these things happen. Danny has challenged himself in some ways. When you’re riding well, winning comes easily – like in 2014 for Danny. But this year, he has been pushed and forced to hit every apex and not to make a mistake and suddenly, the lap times don’t come quite as easy and neither does the domination.

For me, Danny had to come back into this championship and win it. There’s no guarantee that he will win it just yet either. Danny and Richard Cooper – without taking anything away from anyone else – have a big point to prove. Even though there are young, up and coming riders chasing them down, none of them are ready to move to a Superbike. Danny and Richard are still the cream of the class and they’re both under such massive pressure. I think whoever loses this championship won’t get a ride in Superbikes next season. Someone who may be over-performing further down the points table however, may get an opportunity but that is the politics of this paddock.

What do you make of the new National Superstock 1000 championship format?

I think some teams have criticised it because they may not have the budget to do it competitively. We are fortunate in the sense that I own a business and I can throw more or less anything at it. For our team, there is no budget.

My own opinion on the 50 mile back-to-back races is that it is wrong to have them. I think it should just be a Sprint Race on Saturday, followed by the Feature Race on a Sunday. I’d say that 99% of the Superstock 1000 guys would agree with me on that. Some of the teams in the championship are not set up to do the 50 miles back-to-back races. When you’ve got to refuel and change tyres in 10 minutes, even for our team, that is hard going. Everything has to fall into place to do that with some degree of success. It takes one thing to go wrong and you’ve had it.

However, whilst some people may agree with my proposed format, some people would be scared to challenge Stuart Higgs on it, as they all asked for more track time. So, Stuart would say, “you’ve got what you asked”.

What are the main differences between a Superstock bike and a Superbike?

It’s quite funny actually. I hear all these different people saying this and that about how easy it is to come off a Superbike and ride a Superstock bike – it’s absolutely rubbish. Josh Elliott, as I’ve mentioned, is a former champion but for whatever reason, he can’t find the set-up for the Tyco BMW.

Superstocks are no different when it comes to setting the bike up. We use a ride height gauge which some teams don’t use and then, they wonder why their bikes won’t steer. These bikes are probably closer to Superbikes than they’ve ever been. Our bikes have Superbike linkages. Although the swinging arm may not be a Superbike one, they’re just as long as a Superbike one. They will only allow us to run SC2s on the bike because if we ran SC1s, the likes of Danny and Richard would be mixing it with Superbike times and that’s not what the organisers want.

Fuel tanks on a Superstock bike are standard whereas when we ran the Superbikes, they were factory tanks, where they are positioned under the seat. The difference is the money involved – £2500 for a factory tank and just £500 for what we use now. The chassis is exactly the same as a Kawasaki Superbike, it is just the set up for some circuits that will alter. There’s a lot of differences such as callipers, forks, yolks and brake disks. The electronics are different too; Superbikes run Motec and we run kit. We have more electronics on our kit package than what the Motec packages have on the Superbike.

Is being in a ‘factory’ supported team necessary to win races in the Superbike class?

One thing that I don’t think that matters in BSB is having the big lorries and huge hospitality. Reason being, the McAms Yamahas aren’t performing like they should, yet we are and we haven’t got all of the big lorries and awnings. It’s the same thing for Sylvain Guintoli – he is supposed to be in a factory Suzuki team yet he’s nowhere. I take my hat off to people like Josh Brookes who just get on the bike and ride it well. Anyone who says you need factory support to win is talking like a twat quite frankly! They could have all the money in the world and all the lorries in the world but that won’t buy you knowledge to build the bike or the skill to ride a bike well, even when it isn’t set up.

So, your 2018 plans: will you be back in the Superbike class?

We might be. We are not prepared to run the Superbike if we are not able to get a proper rider on it. In 2015, our bikes were identical to Bournemouth Kawasaki in every way. We put Keith Farmer on the bike at Donington Park for a test and also for the Sunflower meeting at Bishopscourt. He turned to us and said, ‘there’s nothing wrong with the bike, it’s your riders’. We wouldn’t go in and throw money at it if we couldn’t get a proper rider on the bike. We don’t want to be making up numbers.

We had Peter Baker in 2015, who achieved everything he possibly could at club level. Peter’s dream was to have a go at Superbikes and with all the best will in the world to him, we knew that he wasn’t going to shine through in BSB. It came to a point where I had to say, ‘listen mate, you’re not quick enough’. We then put John Ingram on the bike, who got us a 12th place at Brands Hatch – our best to date. We then had Danny Johnson and Victor Cox. Danny didn’t have a fair crack at the whip if I’m totally honest. My own opinion is that the people working on Danny Johnson’s bike weren’t good enough, as they couldn’t get the balance of the bike sorted. Danny himself had a lot of potential.

For 2018, I can tell you that we have Josh Elliott testing for us in September. We are unsure whether it will be in Superbike or Superstock. I think he has gone backwards since he left us, down to the team he rides for now. If Josh was on our bike for 2017, Danny Buchan would have had an ever tougher time of things at the front.

Kevin Manfredi would be more than happy to ride for us; he was extremely happy with our bikes when he tested them and wants us to step up to the European Superstock 1000 series. He actually said that our bike is better than what he rides right now in the European Superstock.

So where does Danny Buchan fit in?

I can confirm that Danny Buchan won’t be riding for us at all next year. Not in Superstock 1000 and not in Superbikes. It’s not that we aren’t interested in bringing Danny into Superbikes but he wants to go to a team that is already established. He doesn’t want to be what would technically be a ‘development’ rider if he was to come up with us. If Fraser wants to stay, then he’ll be with us. We will have another top rider alongside him, whether that be in Superbikes or Superstock.

Thank you to Steve Buckenham for his time at Cadwell Park, as well as Chris Sayle for his technical input. We wish the team all the very best moving forwards.

Image courtesy of Gareth Davies of Full Factory Photography

Ryan Vickers has said he “needs to working on beating” the front runners of the National Superstock 600 class and that the only way to do that is to ‘step his game up’ during this weekend at Cadwell Park. Vickers comes off the back of a strong Thruxton, where he finished the closest he has ever come to a win.

“Cadwell Park speaks for itself really,  it’s such an iconic track that I think everyone looks forward to attending all year; I know I certainly am!”, began the 18 year old from Thetford.

“Thruxton  was a brilliant round for me considering it was a new track and it was the closest I had been to the front at the end of a race, although I didn’t get my best result”, he continued.

“It will be nice to go to a track I know, as the last few rounds have been new tracks which has been awesome but not easy! Hopefully going to a track I know will take a bit of pressure off me and allow me to be more focused on going fast and setting the bike up, rather than learning the course”, said Vickers, currently 9th in the championship in his first year.

“The last race I competed in at Cadwell Park was the end of last season at the CB500 championship finale where I qualified P1 and came 1st in all 4 races! I am really looking to step my game up at Cadwell and start getting right in with the front boys”, said a determined Vickers, whose best result to date is a 5th.

“I have the pace to run with the front guys but now, I just need to work on beating them. Thanks to all my sponsors and supporters that get me there”.

The National Superstock 600 race takes place at 10.45am on Sunday, over 12 laps.

Image courtesy of Gareth Davies, Full Factory Photography