All three riders seemed to be on top form during their respective free practice sessions today (24th May 2008) at Donington Park, but it was AJ Venter who stole the show during the first of his two qualifying sessions.
Having set the fastest time during his only free practice session earlier in the day, the young South African carried that form into the first qualifying session finishing in P1. AJ will now have to wait until Sunday to get out there again and protect his time during the second session at 1:35pm.
With the introduction of wildcard entries from four World Supersport riders of Hanspree Ten Kate Honda and Parkalgar Honda, both Glen Richards and Paul Young knew they would be up against it all weekend in their class, but they let the World’s riders know they would be no pushovers by matching them all the way during the two free practice sessions they had.
Glen was second only to Andrew Pitt of Hanspree during the first session whilst Youngy wasn’t far away in 12th and had been as high as fourth. During free practice 2, Glen had dropped off the place a little, slipping to fourth but Paul had improved on his last time by setting the 9th fastest time of the session.
The guys were clearly benefiting from being able to analyse the data from the bikes with the help of Data Engineer Chris Rayner who they had borrowed from the Embassy Racing Auto Team for the weekend.
Glen Richards was grateful for Chris's presence
“It’s great having Chris here for the weekend. His knowledge of the technology just allows us to see what the bikes are doing around the track in so much more detail. I’m hoping we can put a transfer request in for him, although I don’t know what the car boys would think to that!”
In an added boost for the team the rain that was forecasted for the remainder of the weekend looks to be heading elsewhere, at least for Sunday anyway.
