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The Real Cycle People
44 George Street, Perth

EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING

TEAM KRP's three young wild-card riders can draw strength from coming through a difficult and frustrating weekend at the rain-lashed British GP at Donington Park.

Changeable weather conditions made it hard to select the right tyres and race set up and team boss Mark Keen was forced to compromise on the startline when he realised conditions at the notoriously slippery north midlands circuit would be drier than he anticipated.

As a result Robbie Stewart, Nikki Coates and late entrant Tom Hayward did well to achieve respectable finishes on bikes that were less than ideally set up for the rapidly drying track.

On the whole Keen was pleased with his young riders but he was typically self critical about his decision-making in the run up to the race. The team manager felt Stewart and Coates in particular could have achieved higher finishing positions if he had sent them out with harder tyres and suspension settings.

"It was extremely difficult to call," said Keen. "The MotoGP race which ran before ours got drier lap by lap but from where we were at the back of the paddock it was still black and drizzling and I decided to stay with the the wet set up. When we got to the garages I realised it was wrong but we had lost nearly ten minutes getting there and all we could do was change to slicks. By then it was too late to switch the suspension units."

Cool under pressure, the KRP mechanics ensured the riders went out for the warm up lap on dry tyres but a fuel surge problem, caused by carrying more petrol than for British Championship races caused all three lads to bog down on the startline as the GP got underway, with Stewart particularly slow to get off the line.

"All in all it was very frustrating," continued Keen, "But the boys rode well, put in some respectable times and, considering how much time they lost on the first lap, it was an achievement for Nikki and Robbie to avoid being lapped."

After battling with factory rider Danny Webb and other GP regulars for much of the race, Coates and Stewart were forced to nurse their soft tyres and overworking suspensions to finish 27th and 28th respectively. Hayward, who was only called up to ride as a late replacement for injured Ashley Beech the evening before the meeting began, did well to qualify and finished in 30th position.

Team KRP's next competitive outing is the seventh round of the British 125GP Championship at Knockhill in Fife on 1 July, but before that the team is pleased to have been invited to take part in 'Superbikes in the Square', a promotional event in the centre of Glasgow on Wednesday June 27. Together with fellow Scottish young guns Kev Coghlan and Stuart Easton, KRP's Robbie Stewart will be demonstrating his KRP Honda in the city's main square in the afternoon.

KRP old boys Dan Linfoot and Bradley Smith had plenty to cheer about at Donington Park. Smith who has become a consistent top ten finisher in GPs this year under the tutelage of Dani Pedrosa's manager Alberto Puig, finished seventh in the 125cc Grand Prix. Linfoot, who has been a spectator for much of this year following the financial collapse of his team at the start of the season, matched his 125cc achievement in KRP colours in 2005 by finishing ninth in the 250cc GP in his debut race on an factory Sicilia Aprilia.

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