BIKES: Nutt denied strong result at Brands

MARTY Nutt's points scoring run came to end at Brands Hatch on Sunday when he crashed out of the latest round of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship.

The Castlerock rider had been in strong form throughout the two days and was enjoying an excellent ride when he slid off the Nutttravel.com/T&G Racing Dawn Yamaha on the seventh lap, fortunately without injury.

Free practice couldn't have gone any better for Marty and the team and he was never outside of the top ten in any of the three sessions. Fifth and ninth in Friday's free practice sessions was followed up by an excelllent third place in Saturday's third and final practice session, which was held in the damp, and this set him up nicely for the solitary 30-minute qualifying session.

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However, what had been a troublefree weekend thus far suddenly went wrong and Marty was only able to complete a solitary lap due to a dropped valve with the Yamaha engine. This meant he would have to start the 16-lap race from the back of the grid and with lots of work to do.

Starting from 34th place was going to be a tall order for Marty but he proved to be more than up to the task and by the end of the first lap, he had already moved up to 25th place. Over the next few laps, Marty continued to make excellent progress - 21st on lap two, 19th on lap three and 16th by lap five - and his efforts were rewarded on just the sixth lap when he moved up into 14th place.

However, no sooner had he moved in to the points, then his race was over as he slid off at Druids and with the bike too damaged to continue he reluctantly had to watch the rest of the race on the sidelines.

Speaking afterwards, Marty said: "Free practice had gone brilliantly and I was more than hopeful of getting inside the top ten in qualifying but the engine problem put paid to that and I knew it was going to be hard work from the back of the grid.

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"However, I knew that if I got a good start and immediately made up some places, I might just be able to sneak in to the points and that's exactly how the race was panning out. I made up a load of places on the first lap and just gradually picked them off one by one and to be in 14th after just half a dozen laps was brilliant.

"I was hopeful at that stage of getting in to the top ten but Jack Kennedy crashed out just before I got to Druids and I just took a bit too much front brake and it was enough to tuck the front end. It was a real shame as the bike was flying and there was definitely a chance of some good points but it was just one of those things.

"On the plus side, the bike is working really well and I'm pleased with my form so I'm confident we'll be back in the top ten next time out."

The next round of the British Supersport Championship takes place at Cadwell Park the end of the month, August 28-30.