Dave Hewson, Oulton Park, April 21

After engine problems forced him to withdraw from the opening round of the MRO Supersport 600 championship at Snetterton last month Branston racer Dave Hewson was relieved to finish his second round race in a top twenty position at Oulton Park.

Hewson entered the Bemsee supersport races on Saturday using the experience as a test for both him and the bike. The engine appeared to be running fine and Dave took the opportunity of learning the new chicane at the demanding Cheshire circuit in preparation for his championship race two days later.

However things did not go quite to plan for the county rider when he failed to finish either of the two Bemsee races, the first because of a crash on just the second lap and being forced to retire from the second race with a sticking throttle.

” In race one I was lying about seventh or eighth in a group and decided I would move up a place on the run to Cascades on lap three. I showed the rider ahead my front wheel but he tried to shut the door and we both went off into the gravel, ” said Hewson.

” I thought I had removed all the gravel from the bike but as we went out on the warm-up lap for the second race I found the throttle was sticking and decided to pull in and retire before we even got under orders. ”

The weather played a major part in Monday’s qualifying session as Hewson had never ridden the Yamaha 600 in the wet before but he managed to put in some respectable times giving him a ninth row start to his championship race.

” I was quite a way back on the grid but managed to reel in some stragglers and latch onto the back of a midfield group. On the run to the hairpin everyone else took the inside line but I saw a gap and went for it passing four riders in one go, including the championship leader Chris Bishop which was nice. I ended up crossing the finish line in 20th place, not too bad for a first effort. After all my engine problems it was nice to have a trouble free day with the bike and get a race finish under my belt. I would like to thank James Jackson for all his help in rebuilding the engine for me after Snetterton. ”