Team Suzuki Press Office
Sylvain Guintoli – 18-10th
Taylor Mackenzie – 15-15th
Richard Cooper (STK) – 2nd
Bennetts Suzuki’s Sylvain Guintoli took a top-10 finish in race two at Cadwell Park today, after a challenging weekend at the Lincolnshire circuit and round eight of the MCE British Superbike Championship.
The unique nature of the Cadwell Park circuit presented the team with a number of challenges when it came to dialling-in a comfortable base-setting on its GSX-R1000 Superbike machines, but despite these difficulties, plenty of progress was made from session-to-session throughout the weekend.
Guintoli was racing for points in race one before a mistake saw him run off track. He crossed the line in 18th. However, after more setup changes between races, the Frenchman was able to improve to a 10th-place finish in race two. Although disappointed not to be further up the order, the improvements in performance and lap times highlight the progress being made.
His teammate, Taylor Mackenzie, bagged championship points in both races, with a brace of 15th positions.
In the National Superstock 1000 race Richard Cooper added another podium to his season’s tally. He finished in third place, but after a post-race technical inspection was promoted to second.
Sylvain Guintoli:
“We’ve continued to work on and improve the bike this weekend. Cadwell Park is a very unique circuit. All British tracks are very different and have their own character, but none are quite like Cadwell Park. But this makes it very difficult to find a setup that works, and it’s even harder when you’re at a track like this for the first time with a new bike. But we have made improvements and will all keep working hard to keep improving before the end of the season.”
Taylor Mackenzie:
“It was tough this weekend but it’s not for lack of trying. We’re still trying to make the bike easier to ride in certain areas. It’s powerful, and we’re still trying to tame the beast. And Cadwell is a difficult place to go fast at with a bike that’s not as easy to ride as we’d like. We’re disappointed but still smiling. We’ll all keep working hard and I’m confident there are better days to come.”
Richard Cooper:
“I was pretty annoyed to cross the line in third. I knew it was going to be hard to beat Danny [Buchan] today. He was incredibly fast this weekend, but I knew that if I couldn’t beat him, I had to finish second, and I missed out at the line. But obviously we’ve since been promoted to second and that’s important for us. I’m not bothered that I had to stand on the third step of the podium instead of the second; it’s just important we’ve got those four points back and it means we’re not out of it yet. The bike was spot on again. We’re good for speed and I had no issues at all, we just got beaten today. But I’m looking forward to Silverstone, I think we’ll be strong there, and hopefully we can have some other people involved and recover some ground on Danny in the championship.”
Superbike race one result: 1. Leon Haslam, 2. Jake Dixon, 3. Shane Byrne, 15. Taylor Mackenzie (Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000), 18. Sylvain Guintoli (Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superbike race two result: 1. James Ellison, 2. Lee Jackson, 3. Peter Hickman, 10. Sylvain Guintoli (Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000), 15. Taylor Mackenzie (Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000).
Superstock race result: 1. Danny Buchan, 2. Richard Cooper (Bennetts Suzuki GSX-R1000), 3. Mason Law.
