Published at 09:06, Monday, 30 July 2012

THE MCE British Superbike Championship returned to Kent for round 7 on the Brands Hatch GP Circuit.

Tight bend: Allendale’s Graeme Gowland rides rounds a corner at Brands Hatch in the latest round of the British Superbike Championship.

Friday hosted an official BSB test day on the Indy circuit and Allendale’s Graeme Gowland was on form and running in the top six throughout the session.

Saturday morning saw the riders take to the GP circuit for two sessions of free practice and Gowla was third and fourth respectively.

Superpole qualifying took place in the afternoon and Gowland was on fire and took the top spot in both Q1 and Q2, but was unable to do it in Q3 as he got held up by another rider while on his fastest lap, so he had to settle for eighth on the grid.

Race 1 got under way and Gowland slipped back to 10th as he suffered with handling problems on his WFR Honda. Ian Lowry onboard the Padgetts Honda took a tumble on lap six, moving Gowland up a spot and then his team mate Alex Lowes ran off line on lap 12 gifting him another place which he lost one lap later to Tommy Bridewell on the Supersonic BMW.

Gowland still maintained a good pace as he struggled to try to get the WFR machine home and claim some solid points but the mechanical problem caused him to crash out, unhurt, on the penultimate lap.

Race two saw Gowland start from 13th on the grid but he made a good start and was quickly up to 10th. He moved up to eighth due to the misfortunes of Rapid Solicitors Stuart Easton and Primo Kawasaki Chris Walker.

He was once again experiencing some minor technical problems and that allowed Bridewell to pass him and although he was in a four way battle for sixth place with Lowes, Bridewell and Lowry he had to settle for ninth.

Gowland said: “The weekend looked as though it was to be a turning point in my season as I love the Brands Hatch GP circuit and my WFR Honda was working great throughout practice and qualifying and I was hoping to get some good results, but once again luck was not on my side as mechanical gremlins surfaced on race day. I will now focus on the next round at Cadwell Park.”

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