TOUGH DAY AT CADWELL PARK RACE CIRCUIT FOR KARL HARRIS
Monday, August 25th, 2008Rob Mac Racing arrived at their home circuit of Cadwell Park high on the success of a podium at the last time out at Knockhill, Scotland.A new qualifying format greeted the riders for Round 9 at the picturesque Lincolnshire circuit. Adopting an F1-style Qualifying, three timed sessions whittled the grid down to the 20 fastest riders, then the 10 fastest who finally battled it out for the best time and final starting positions. Karl Harris qualified his Rob Mac Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 through to the final session with an eventual seventh grid position, heading up the fourth row on the three abreast grid format.
As the flag dropped for Race 1, Karl had a tough task ahead of him to get away with the leaders. In the opening laps the ‘Bomber’ was pushing hard to move up the race order when he lost the front end at the bottom of the infamous ‘Mountain’, bringing an abrupt end to the race and an injury to Karl’s left hand that needed injections to ease the pain.
The brave Sheffield lad proved his true grit and determination as he lined up for the start of Race 2. With blood seeping through his left glove from the crushed left little finger, Harris joked to the television crew that it was only a minor injury.
A good start put Karl in contention as he got away in 10th place quickly picking up places over the next few laps. With the front five pulling away from the remainder of the field, it was all Karl could to do to progress up to sixth place with a huge 3.5 second gap ahead of him. As he got his head down Harris banked his fastest lap of the race as he crossed the line having completed Lap 5.
Although he maintained his fast pace and race position for the next 5 laps, Karl was struck yet again by the bad luck that has blighted his season to date. Struggling with a dramatic loss of rear end grip, Karl visibly slowed on the track and lost over 4 seconds a lap, dropping places as his progress slipped through his hands.
As the flag dropped Karl nursed his bike home to finish in a very frustrating tenth position, picking up a handful of points to salvage his weekend.
The team now move on to Round 10 of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Croft, North Yorkshire on 12-14th September.
Karl Harris: I’ve shattered a few bones and the nail has come off my little finger on my left hand when I hit the barrier. I’ve had a few injections in it so I thought it would be fine for race two. I got a good start and felt ok for the opening laps, I made some really good progress but then I just lost all my rear grip. I was really struggling to keep it going but I was determined to finish the race.”
Rob McElena, Team Principal: “From the high’s of Knockhill we are back down to the lows. Karl made a mistake in Race 1 that really cost us any chance of a good result this weekend. We had a problem with the tyre spinning on the rim in the latter half of Race 2, which just about summed up our weekend for us. Once again we will pick ourselves up and move on to the race at Croft.”
Race 1 Result
1. Haslam (Honda), 2. Sykes (Suzuki), 3.Byrne (Ducati), 4. Camier (Ducati), 5. Crutchlow (Honda), DNF - Karl Harris (Rob Mac Racing Yamaha)
Race 2 Results
1. Haslam (Honda), 2. Sykes (Suzuki), 3. Byrne (Ducati), 4. Camier (Ducati), 5. Rutter (Ducati), 10. Karl Harris (Rob Mac Racing Yamaha)
Championship Standings
1. Byrne - 364, 2. Sykes - 254, 3. Haslam - 249, 4. Crutchlow - 236, 5. Camier - 205, 11) Karl Harris - 75
