Race ace Walker aiming to build on strong start

Ollerton’s Superbike race ace and fan favourite Chris Walker goes to Brands Hatch this weekend with two credible top 10 places under his belt from the opening round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Donington Park.
Chris Walker in action at Donington. Picture by Paul Horton Motorsport Photography.Chris Walker in action at Donington. Picture by Paul Horton Motorsport Photography.
Chris Walker in action at Donington. Picture by Paul Horton Motorsport Photography.

The technical issues the team encountered from the official test day the week before at Donington seemed to be resolved, despite Walker suffering minor electrical problems throughout the opening day of three and his team worked hard during the night to ensure all was sorted.
Pushing his bike hard to its limit during qualifying, he was 15th in qualifying one and through to the second session where the ‘Stalker’ put the Kawasaki ZX-10R super machine to 16th on the grid out of the 30 starters with a 1min 30.8sec lap.

He showed his fans that it doesn’t take an experienced BSB rider and the determination of Walker long to get used to a new bike and Be-Wiser Team boss and 2011 BSB champion Tommy Hill was very pleased.

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Sunday was Walker’s first real track time and in free practice three he moved up to 16th, 1.2 seconds off provisional pole.
In race one the 43-year-old was on the pace from the red lights going out, and in 12th by the end of the opening lap. He rode his fastest lap in the seventh lap, travelling at speeds of 94.77mph, before crossing the line in eighth of the 20-lap race.
In race two he lined up 14th on the grid and was soon chasing down those in front over another 20 laps and as determined as ever and up to 10th spot after lap one
The race was more of a close battle with those around him, and took the chequered flag in 10th.
His Be Wiser Kawasaki team mate Danny Buchan claimed two sixth-place grid positions, but crashed out in both races.

Walker said: “It was a frustrating weekend for us at the start as we had a few niggling problems that troubled us on the first day.

“We missed out on a fair bit of track time with that, but my team worked really hard to get things working for qualifying day.

“I managed to get some decent laps done on the Sunday and I knew we were beginning to make progress. I am actually pretty happy with the results I gained after the start of the weekend and I left with some solid points in the bag and now a base plan for the next round at Brands Hatch this weekend.

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“I would like to say a huge thank you to my team on my side of the garage for getting things right and hope now we can start to move things forward for the rest of the season.”

Team boss Tommy Hill added: “Chris had a very consistent weekend and was making some good progress in both races chasing the leading pack.

“He worked hard throughout both races and has come away with some solid results for the team.

“He has certainly built his confidence this weekend and has adapted to working with a new team well and I’m sure that will only get better as the season goes on.”
Walker is in 10th place with 14 rider points with another 11 rounds of the series and a long road ahead.