James East
Cadwell Park BSB
National 600 Superstock Round 9

Cadwell Park returns as the venue for round 9 of the National 600 Superstock Championship, and James rides for a new team, TK COPE MOTO LTD



With a dry first day, James jumps on the new Yamaha YZF R6 prepared by TK Cope Yamaha and sets out to get to grips with the machine in Free Practice. The machine is totally different to James’s own Yamaha but with a few own comforts to be changed James manages a time of 1:36:226 for 13th place.

Qualifying 1 and its dry once again. Suspension changes are made which makes the bike allot user friendly along with some adjustment on the controls and James goes faster with a fastest time of 1:34:999, 1.2 seconds faster than practice to put him in 8th position.


Qualifying 2
Right before the stock 600 group A session the heavens opened to put a stop on anyone bettering their best times.
In group B, James just did a few laps to scout around and see where the grip was and swiftly returned to the pits.
Unfortunately despite James doing the 8th fastest time out of both the A and B groups, the times were aggregated and split together due to different track conditions between the groups in qualifying. This would mean James would have to start from 15th position.

Sunday Night CJ Memorial Riders Fund Charity Bike Ride
Sunday Night saw the paddock and spectators come together to raise money for the CJ Riders Fund in fancy dress on the track! Hundreds took to the mountain circuit on their pedal powered machines. James dressed as a monk for this event, shaving his head in true fashion as well!



Warm Up
In a hectic warm up session, Easty proves he is gelling with the TK Cope Machine and puts in a time of 1:34:946 just slightly faster than his qualifying time to end the session once again in 8th position.


Race
James gets a good launch but is blocked and bumped in the first corner, with a lot of work to do he made his way up to 12th when the race was red flagged due 1 of several big crashes.
When the race was re started James got a good initial launch but was once again run wide in turn 1 and hit in turn 2 by another rider and only just managed to keep the machine on track.
Again James had allot of work to do, and was back in 18th position on lap 1, but he got his head down and battled through, over taking 3 people on the last lap whilst putting in his fastest time of the weekend, a 1:34:251.

James – “I enjoyed the weekend however I was not happy with the finish, I feel I salvaged a result out of a bad situation from nearly being taken out on the first lap, that severely hindered my chances, but the TK Cope team worked great and the bike ran brilliantly all weekend. I’m looking forward to working hard at Croft for a top 6 result. “

Thanks go out to:
All at TK Cope Moto LTD
Kev Smith
John East, Stefan Pollard, Ian Brookman
Homechoice Carpets
Steve Lynham Motorcycle Repairs
R&G RACING
Impacts Signs
James Swift, Dominoes Pizza
Motrax