The MCE British Superbike series returned to the powerhouse circuit of Snetterton this weekend, for Round 7 of the BSB championship. PR Rider Luke Jones was confident of a points finish for the first of three races, from which he would start the first race from P11, after posting the 11th fasted lap from Knockhill, before the meeting was abandoned.
As the lights went out for the first race, the PR Yamaha lost power off the line, which forced the 21 year-old rider down the order to P19 before he was able to correct for the issue. Throughout the race, Jones was unable to identify the cause and was plagued with an intermittent transmission issue that found him crossing the finish line in P23. Luke stated, "I just couldn't understand how I lost so many places, I was on full throttle and the bike just seemed to choke. To be honest my head was gone for a lap or so but I had to push on.” Notwithstanding, once Luke settled down he managed to take a further second off his qualifying time.
Afterwards Julian Mosquera commented,“Shortly after the race other teams expressed concern with the same problems off the line, which was later diagnosed by the circuit officials as an issue with the induction loop (used to register a bike’s speed through a speed trap) on the start-finish line. The induction loop frequency affected all Motec ECUs, thereby, crippling Luke’s (and others) start. We are all bitterly disappointed with the circumstances that affected the results.”
Julian went on to say, “We developed a cooling issue which lost us our replacement engine on Friday and then also affected his number one engine on Sunday morning. We decided on the grounds of safety, not to have Luke out for the rest of the weekend. He is starting to rebuild his confidence, so we cannot afford an engine to ‘blow out’ on this very demanding circuit, which may injure Luke and other riders on the track.”
Another frustrating weekend that promised much but left the team perplexed. All we can do is go testing and seek to eliminate the gremlins. Luke is very keen to make up for these unforeseen difficulties next time he is out on the track.End.
