Team Suzuki Press Office – June 19.
Luke Mossey – GSX-R1000 – 11-11
Josh Elliott – GSX-R1000 – 15-15
OMG Racing Suzuki riders Luke Mossey and Josh Elliott raced their GSX-R1000 machines to two double points finishes at the weekend’s fourth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch in the UK.
Following recent tests to rectify issues that had hindered them at recent rounds, both riders finished both races for the first time since Silverstone, with Mossey taking two 11th positions with Elliott 15th in both.
Unpredictable weather played a huge role across the weekend, but the weather was surprisingly sunny for FP1: Both started off strong with P12 for Elliott and P14 for Mossey, who came out fighting in FP2 – pushing his GSX-R1000 up to P9 by the end of the first day. Elliott, meanwhile, began his second course of changes, which unfortunately didn’t go as well as expected – putting him in P20.
Day two brought different challenges, as the weather changed from rain to sunshine, and then back to rain. But FP3 saw Mossey in P11 and Elliott in P19.
Race one on Sunday saw a fully wet Brands become almost bone-dry as the race progressed, but both riders battled their way up and down the order as everyone attempted to handle the changeable conditions. Mossey produced a fantastic fightback after being pushed wide at Druids by Keith Farmer on the opening lap, enjoying a good scrap with BSB veteran James Ellison before a charging Glenn Irwin bumped him just out of the top 10 with two laps to go. Elliott on the other hand had a great start, moving up as high as P14 before the drying track began to take its toll on his rear grip, forcing the Ulsterman back to P18 with two laps remaining.
Starting race two in P8 for Mossey and P14 for Elliott, the onus was on more points to add to the weekend’s haul, and both delivered another double points finish for the team, with some fantastic racing against factory machines. With less than a second separating P10 to P14 for most of the race, Mossey produced a stunning set of last lap moves, very nearly taking that elusive top 10 finish off Irwin. The gap at the chequered flag? Just 0.061. Elliott came home in P15.
OMG Suzuki riders Elliot and Mossey currently hold 11th and 14th in the series heading into Round 5 at Knockhill, Scotland on June 30th:
Luke Mossey:
“A positive weekend if I’m honest as we’ve come away with two 11th places – little bit frustrated we didn’t come away with two top-10s, but all the boys are working really hard and we’re really not far away. We’ve cured this chatter problem that we’ve had the last two rounds and that’s unearthed another area to develop but like I said, we’re really not far away. Everyone’s working their butts off, so the results are coming, I’m sure of that. I feel really confident in myself and the bike is generally really good so all credit to the OMG team, we’ll look forward to Knockhill and hopefully keep improving there.”
Josh Elliott:
“Bit of a challenging day weather-wise; race one was mixed conditions – the race started wet and we knew it was going to dry up. Of course, it ended up drying pretty fast and we just struggled with grip, the wet tyres didn’t really hook up well in the wet and then ended up spinning a lot in the dry. But we came away with a good 15th. Race two was bone dry but just struggled in a few areas, similar to Donington, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to really look at those before Knockhill so we can arrive with an improved package. Obviously we’re looking to get ourselves back up the pecking order really and get some more points because the team have been working mega hard and we’re not getting the results for one reason or another.”
Paul Curran – OMG Racing Team Principal:
“Two points finishes from both riders in both races, we had kind of hoped it would have been further up the field, but points are points at the end of the day. The practice and qualifying sessions went okay, the weather kind of scuppered our plans and what we wanted to do, but it’s the same for everyone. There’re a few things on the bike which, at the moment, the riders aren’t happy with which is in turn preventing them from pushing that little bit harder. We’ll be working on those before the next round. Hopefully those things will all work themselves out of the bike and we can get ourselves further up in the points again.”
Alan Gardner – Team OMG:
“I think it’s been a good weekend for us in terms of building ourselves back up from Donington. It was mentally tough on the team and so to get both bikes in the points in both races shows we’re moving back in the right direction with things.
“Luke and Josh are giving it their all on track, and all our guys and girls in the garages are taking all that information and using it to keep developing the bike. For OMG to be the top two Suzuki’s in the series shows just how hard everyone is working to get back to the front; obviously they’ve all got a bit of a taste for Champagne now and they’re eager to get it again!
“This week we’ve had some inspiration coming from the students down at the National Autistic Society’s Anderson School, who came down and visited us on Friday after we took Luke’s bike up there on Thursday. It’s great seeing kids (and adults) really lighting up when they see the bikes or speak to any of the team and you really can’t miss the fans out there supporting the team on Social Media or wearing the merchandise. We’ll keep putting smiles on faces and keep on enjoying our racing, the results will come again.”
