Harry Hartley on board for final two rounds of the season

In keeping with our ethos of nurturing and developing young talent, ILR Kawasaki are pleased to announce that British Superbike young gun Harry Hartley will ride for the team in the final two rounds of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship, with his debut for the team coming this weekend at Silverstone.

Despite his young age, Hartley comes to the team with a race proven pedigree.
He was a regular podium chaser in the British 125GP class before moving up to the Superstock 600 class where he scored a second place at Brands Hatch.

This season at the age of 17 and on Ninja ZX-10R's, he became the youngest ever MCE British Superbike Championship competitor and points scorer.

Hartley has made rapid progress in a relatively short space of time, and he isn't in the least bit daunted as he takes on new challenges with an impressive ability to quickly get dialed in with machines of all makes and sizes.

Harry Hartley: "I am grateful to ILR Kawasaki and team manager Ian Lougher for presenting me with this opportunity and putting me on the grid at Silverstone.
I would also like to thank everyone who has helped to make this possible.
I am also pleased that I have been able to stay with Kawasaki, it is a brilliant bike and one that I am familiar with and I know this will help me as I strive to keep progressing.
This weekend is a new start for me and I have re-grouped and I am ready to start afresh.
I am looking forward to working with Ian and the team and it will be great to learn from them."

ILR Kawasaki team manager Ian Lougher:
''We are really excited to see how Harry gels at ILR. Although it's true that it's a tall order to jump in at Round 11 and be up there right at the front, I have every confidence in Harry.
Through my 32 years racing career, and managing my own team over the past 8 years, I can pass on some useful knowledge and race craft to such a young and naturally gifted racer who I believe has the talent to go all the way.
Hopefully we can come away with a decent result.''


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Victor Cox Assen Dutch Superbikes

We had a great weekend at Assen in the Dutch Superbike Series, making improvements each time on track. We had a 25 minute qualifying session on the Friday and on the Saturday, not a great deal of track time but was enough to get some great feeling from the bike making improvements ready for the 14 lap race on the Sunday.

We found 2 seconds from our 1st qualifying to the 2nd session, qualifying in 8th position for the race. With little track time we made another change with the gearing ready for race day. I had a great start mixing it with the front guys but couldn't stay with them for long as the other riders were using slick tyres and FIM Spec bikes. We chose to stick with the treaded tyres which we use in the national SuperStock series. I finished in 5th position and was really happy with the result.
Great work from all the team, it was brilliant to be out at Assen as I love the track.
Now it's time to concentrate on the next National Superstock 1000 race at Silverstone 3/4/5th October, with a great weekend of testing from the Dutch SBK at Assen I'm feeling confident. 

Massive thanks to the team, all my sponsors and everyone who supports me. 



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INcompetition Racing TT Assen Circuit

At round ten of the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship, David Allingham on the INcompetition Racing Yamaha had a varied weekend at the TT Assen Circuit. He secured seventh place in mixed conditions in the opening sprint race and was eighth in the main race on Sunday.

The young Irishman has never ridden at the Dutch circuit previously and was eager to get out on the super-fast GP track. He spent most of Friday practice sessions finding his way around and also trying to find a set up that worked best. He qualified in 28th place on the grid and 10th Evo rider; he got a good start and worked his way up to fifth place in the Evo class and 21st overall out of 40 riders. With the track being half wet and half dry, David choose to run full wet tyres and with the quickly drying track David slipped back in the last two laps to seventh at the end of the 11 lap race.

The INcompetition team made several changes overnight and David started from 27th on the grid for race two and in the dry conditions he was keen to gain a strong result. He pushed hard all the way through and ended up finishing in eighth place in the Evo Championship and 20th place overall setting the Evo lap record in the process, he is now fifth equal in the Championship standings.

David Allingham - "Although I didn't get the results I was hoping for here at Assen it was great to come to such an incredible circuit and race here. We seemed to struggle this weekend to find a good set up, we changed the gearing several times but at least now we have some data for next year. Adrian made several changes overnight and the bike felt really good in warm up and during race two.

I knew this weekend would be difficult, it's a very hard track to learn but I have enjoyed it. I am slightly disappointed with the results but hopefully I can finish the season on a high at Silverstone and Brands. Thanks to all my team for helping me, especially Adrian who has helped me so much this year plus all my sponsors who have helped me to get here."



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More wins at the Mount for Farquhar

Ryan Farquhar ended his 2014 road racing season at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough over the weekend and the Dungannon ace made sure it was a successful one with two more wins around the 2.43-mile woodland venue, this time on the Team York Suzuki 1100cc machine.

The weekend didn’t get off to the greatest of starts though when he was forced to retire the SGS International/KMR Kawasaki from third place on lap five of Saturday’s Supertwins race but the rest of the day went well. Riding the same 1100cc Suzuki that Russ Mountford took to third place in last month’s Classic F1 TT race, Ryan took a good win in the Superbike B final, coming home 8.1s clear of Chris Cook, and he rounded the day off on the same bike, finishing a solid second to Jamie Hamilton in the Classic Superbike race.

Sunday saw slightly cooler conditions but with Hamilton crashing out at the end of the first lap of the second Classic Superbike race, Ryan had a comfortable 12.7s victory over Davy Morgan to make it 103 wins in total at the venue. It looked like he’d make it 104 later in the afternoon when he led the Superbike B final by over three seconds as he started his final lap but a broken gear linkage thwarted him and he was overhauled by Tom Weeden with the chequered flag in sight, therefore having to settle for another second place.

Ryan Farquhar: “It’s been a mixed weekend here at Scarborough with good results on the big Suzuki offset by problems with the Supertwin bike. I was trying a new engine spec and although it was making some really good power on the dyno, it didn’t have the punch out of the corners I needed. With three hairpins at Oliver’s Mount, I was losing too much time on each lap and was fighting a losing battle so I opted to pull in and save the engine. There’s plenty of work to be done over the winter with the bike to get us back at the sharp end and I’ll get cracking as soon as possible to make sure we’re stronger next year.”

“On the plus side, I’ve really enjoyed riding the big Suzuki this weekend so a big thank you to Kevin and the entire York Suzuki team for the loan on the bike. I had some really good races on it although I was having a few wee problems changing gear and the gear linkage falling off on the final lap was what cost me my third win of the weekend. I still added another two wins to my total though and enjoyed myself at Scarborough again so I’ve ended the road racing season on a good note.”



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Weekend of two halves at Scarborough for Reeves

Recently crowned World Sidecar Champions Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze had a weekend of two halves at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough where they were competing at the International Gold Cup meeting with two strong second places on Saturday offset by two retirements on Sunday.

Using the same SMT/Remse Racing F2 outfit that took them to glory in the World F2 Trophy event at Oschersleben, Germany three weeks ago, Tim was making his return to the 2.43-mile woodland circuit for the first time since he made his debut in 2009 whilst Gregory was having his first ever taste of the seaside venue.

Nevertheless, they were soon on the pace in practice and qualifying and lined up in third place for Saturday’s two races behind circuit regulars and multiple winners, Ian and Carl Bell and Conrad Harrison/Lee Patterson. The opening six-lap encounter saw the Bells take an early lead to leave Tim and Gregory battling for second with Harrison/Patterson but that became a battle for the lead when the Bells retired on the fourth lap. However, on the final lap, brake fade meant Tim had to slacken the pace and he was unable to challenge Harrison any further, crossing the line in second.

With the Bells non-starters for the second race later in the day, it was a straight shoot-out between Tim and Gregory and Harrison/Patterson and there was never more than a couple of machines lengths between the two outfits throughout the six laps. With overtaking opportunities around the narrow, tree-lined circuit limited to say the least though, there was simply no room for Tim to attempt a safe pass and although he posted his best ever lap of the circuit – 1m56.075s – he again finished in a frustrating second.

Sunday saw the Anglo-French pairing suffer vastly differing fortunes and they failed to make the start of the third six lap race after a cam sensor failed although they were back on the grid for the fourth and final three-wheel race of the weekend. A perfect start saw them dive up the inside of Harrison/Patterson on the run from the line to Mere Hairpin to move into second and in an ideal position to challenge the Bells. Sadly, it wasn’t to be though as a misfire intervened and they were forced to retire at the start of the fourth lap.

Speaking at the end of the weekend, Tim said; “With it only being my second time at Scarborough, and first since my debut in 2009, and Greg’s first ever visit, it’s not been a bad weekend at all. It’s a very tricky circuit and very narrow so we just built things up nicely throughout. The problems on Sunday couldn’t be helped and were unfortunate as we were getting stronger all weekend, putting ourselves in a position to win, and I certainly feel that we could have pushed Ian and Carl for the race wins.”

“As it was, luck went against us but I was more than pleased with the two second place finishes on Saturday. We were right with Conrad in both races but it’s just so difficult to overtake and I couldn’t find a place to do it safely. I could have tried a couple of times but it would have been too dangerous so, whilst it was frustrating not to have won, the lap times and results were really good.”

“With the World Championship wins in both the F1 and F2 classes in Germany, a podium at the TT and more podiums here, the season’s been really good so we can head to Le Mans next weekend with the pressure off. Clinching my fifth world F1 title a few weeks ago was simply brilliant and something I really wanted to achieve so a big thank you to everyone that’s been involved with my racing this year particularly DFDS Seaways, SMT Racing, H&S Contractors, MJW Kawasaki, Remse Racing, Professor Dr Sallmon, Planet Engineering, Pro-Shift, Aircode and LA Marketing.”



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5th British Championship title secured...

This great photo by Bryan Lancaster shows I'm a bit pleased to scoop the Bonhams British Historic GP Championship at Brands last weekend AKA the ‘Lansdowne Trophy’. Riding a Matchless G50 for Ripley Land racing, team owner Ian Garbutt was suited too, “When Mike and I met at the beginning of the year, I told him that one of my ambitions was simply to win the Lansdowne; I am still on cloud nine not only with the Brands weekend but the whole season which I have thoroughly enjoyed."

I've been on the podium for 16 race wins, four 2nd places and three 3rd positions; that's every race except crashing out at Silverstone and then landing from the highside I injured my hand in the front wheel and was unable to start the next race. It’s my 5th British Championship title in a 32 year race career, and it still feels good to win them! I’ve had a great season's racing with some fierce on track action, meeting new race adversaries that have kept me honest, and I’m just pleased to have been able to help Ian achieve his long held ambition.

Check out my website for the weekends video, including onboard footage, my full race report and more photos.

I've been invited back to Phillip Island to enjoy some winter sun by Roger Winfield to ride one of his XR69s in the International Classic match races; I'm hoping that this year the British team can score enough points to beat the Aussies. In fact, if anyone knows of another potential ride, a bike that's already in Australia, that I could race at the same event, please get in touch - I do enjoy plenty of track time!

After my debut at the track in January, I have to say it now features as one of my 'top 5' circuits. As far as I know, Roger's 2015 team line up is likely to be similar to this year: Jeremy McWilliams, Ryan Farquhar, John McGuinness and me with 'new boy' Connor Cummins joining us.



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Season concludes for ILR Kawasaki

ILR Kawasaki's season drew to a close with the final round of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship at Brands Hatch, and it was a weekend of mixed fortunes as James East came home in 19th, however his team-mate Harry Hartley crashed out of the race on the fourth lap, thankfully without injury.

There was little to choose between the two young riders in the first qualifying session which was held in damp, tricky conditions. Both went out on wet tyres with East changing to 'drys' almost immediately, Hartley meanwhile elected to stay out on wets and asked for a dry rear to be fitted for the last eight minutes of the session which ended with James in 23rd and Harry fractions of a second behind in 25th.

Any chances of a climb up the grid and a chance to try out some new springs on the Ninja ZX-10R's were ended with the second session taking place in wet conditions and, with nothing to gain in terms of qualifying positions, both riders sat the session out leaving them on Rows 8 and 9 of the grid respectively.

Again it was cloudy and damp for the race and at the end of the first lap it was East who led his team mate over the line in 23rd position with Hartley reversing the roles on the next lap. The ding-dong battle continued on the third lap as James again got ahead with Harry tucked in behind. But just as he registered his fastest lap, Hartley crashed out on the fourth circuit to leave East as the team's sole rider in the race. James was now down in 25th but was on the back of a large group of riders with little over a second covering them. For the next few laps he gradually worked his way through the field and with two-thirds of the race completed he had moved into 19th place where he remained to the finish, displaying great determination in holding off a serious threat from James Lodge whom he eventually managed to break clear of with two laps to go.

ILR (Ian Lougher Racing) is already looking ahead to 2015 and, as always, is appreciative of all the team's valued sponsors and also wish to thank everyone who has helped and supported the team in 2014.

ILR Kawasaki team manager Ian Lougher: ''It has been a difficult yet promising weekend at ILR, despite the difficult weather conditions both James and Harry gave a good account of themselves.

It's so hard to miss out on a full session like Q2 because of bad weather and therefore not allowing them to have more track time and push further up the grid. Both riders made a good start and were in a battle of four riders that included Ian Hutchinson who has won Superstock races in the past.

Unfortunately Harry went down at a damp Druids, meanwhile James got quicker and quicker but we were running on a setting that was in between dry and wet so he could only go so quick on what he had, so 19th was very respectable. I would like to thank both riders and their sponsors for joining ILR Kawasaki for the last few rounds of 2014, and hope to work with all of them again very soon. Also a big thank-you to Matt, Dave, Nige and Asa for their hard work over the weekend."

James East : "The last round of the championship came and went in a blur. We had mixed conditions which made it feel like little time was spent on track, however the ILR Kawasaki never missed a beat.

Ian wound a comfortable setting in to the bike which felt good immediately, but whether we could be in a position to push on a dry track was undetermined due to the lack of testing time, again though I was confident in a set-up that would work in all conditions as I was happy enough with the feedback I had given to Dave and Ian to interpret and make a set-up to suit. My start wasn't bad in the race, but a rapidly drying track left me with a conservative set-up which was perfect to find grip with, but sat soft in the corner when I started to push.

With this feeling I did what I could, had a lot of fun sliding around! However the finishing position didn't reflect the fantastic effort the team put in. Thank-you to Dave, Ian, Asa, Matt, Nigel and Richard for all of their efforts, and a massive thanks again to Lisa and Charlie for their support and for making it possible for me to race with such a brilliant team. I hope to work with the ILR team in the near future and have some more fun."

Harry Hartley: ''Firstly I'd like to thank the whole ILR team for giving me the opportunity to return to the last two rounds of the National Superstock 1000 Championship.

It was a huge honour for me to ride for one of my TT heroes and I hope the work I did was sufficient for the team.

I'd also like to thank them all for their efforts at Brands Hatch, unfortunately the tricky conditions caught me out and I went down moving through the pack. I think I could have reached the points but I will now have to wait until next season.''



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