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A cold and bleak winter’s testing was followed by a sunny weekend for round 1 of the championship at Donington Park.
Photo: Colin Port

43 riders strong, the Superstock championship has a line up of varied riders and machines for 2015, with the usual contenders of recent years on the Kawasaki ZX10R, but many competitors choosing to run the all new BMW and Yamaha machinery.

We got off to a great start, with both me and Hego in the top 10 in practice, me 7th and Dan 8th with average times in the 1:34’s.
I didn’t feel comfortable in the practice session, the bike was moving a lot and hard to bring down to an apex, so we reviewed the data and went to work on an improvement for qualifying.

Qualifying practice didn’t go to plan, I quickly found that we had gone the wrong way with the set up and the bike was very difficult to ride with very little grip. I was unable to put a good time in so again we put in some work to bring a new set up to Qualifying 2.

Qualifying 2 saw us improve the bike however it was still violent on the throttle with seemingly little grip to be found. I pushed as hard as I could without putting myself in to a position where a crash was likely and we got to a time in the 1:33’s good enough for 15th on the grid.

We changed spring rates and the bike’s geometry for Warm up which worked, we hold solved some of the pumping issues and gained some stability, so with the bike feeling the best it had felt, we kept the newly found set up for the race.

A good launch kept me with the row in front in the first corner. I got on the throttle early and drove inside many people at Hollywood to get away with an early group.

Making my way through the group I got to the front and 8th place on lap 4 and started to go for the Top 7 in front of me, but on lap 6 a big warning was to come when I exited the foggy esses. The bike broke grip once, twice and the third time kicked me out of the seat, at which point some of the people in the group around me started to come by.
The new tyre had masked over a set up problem looming, and from lap 6 I had major problems with grip and pumping. I was out of the seat and sliding just trying to hang on for the end of the race, and at the end we would finish in 13th place.

I am happy to get off to the start of the season on the championship table without any setbacks in terms of a crash, we have a lot of work to do in testing, but I am confident we will be able to push for podiums on more familiar circuits in the coming rounds.

My team mate Dan had the worst luck with an un predictable electrical fault, turning his bike off and forcing him to retire. I’m wishing him the best of luck for his next race this coming weekend at Scarborough.

I can’t thank my team enough for the opportunity and package given, and Dave Hopkinson of Downshift Motorsport And Mountain bike for his hard work.

Thank you to our sponsors collectively, and my personal Sponsor Walters Medical, for they’re in put, I can’t wait to get to work for Brands Hatch, round 2, where I hope to bring them and the team as a whole closer to, or better yet, on the podium.

Years of experience as well as combined passion for the sport has put a competitive package together for the season ahead with rider James East and Daniel Hegarty competing on 1000cc machines.
Both East and Hegarty will compete in the National 1000 Superstock Championship, East focusing on the series, competing for the Championship, and Hegarty focusing on International Road Racing, including the Isle of Man TT and Ulster International Grand Prix.

James – ‘ I am just delighted to join the Downshift Team. I’m so thankful to be given a package which will put me where I need to be. I’m taking a treasured sponsor with me in Walters Medical of whom I can’t thank enough. I can’t wait to race.’

Collective product and financial sponsors have joined the team in partnership for the coming efforts, of which all are very excited to work in collaboration. Downshift and the Riders are open for further partnerships and endorsement deals.
Downshift’s technical partners are:
Putoline oils, Held Biker Equipment, JT Sprockets, HiFlo Filters, FTWCO, Samco Sport Silicone Hoses, Racebikebitz, Bournemouth Kawasaki, Moto-Master Brakes, Dynojet, GB Racing, Direct Distribution, K-tech suspension, Bell Helmets, Venhill Brakes, Jap4 Performance and Reactive parts.

Dan and James are wearing Held HRD Race Suits, available for purchase today.

Check Out The Page https://www.facebook.com/downshift.england

Downshift Motorcycle & Mountain Bike are a business based in Preston, Lancashire, UK, and specialise in competition cycle sports. Race Service, Builds, Maintenance and Product Purchase are available and carried out with the highest possible standards.

www.putoline.co.uk – The best High Performance Engine Lubriation.

www.held.de – For 1st class rider protection

www.jtsprockets.com – Downshift is geared using JT Sprockets

http://www.ftwco.com/ – Downshift’s apparel of choice – Shirts on our back, at home, or at the track

http://racebikebitz.com/Kawasaki-ZX10-R-2011-2014-7-Piece-Moulded-Y-Piece-Samco-Sport-Silicone-Hose-Kit-Race-Design
– Seen the custom camo Samco Sport performance silicone hoses keeping the Downshift machines running cool? well you can order them today on the link above, quote in the comment box when ordering, Green, Black, Red and White when choosing custom camo for a Downshift replica design, or mix it up with the colour of your choice.

http://www.bournemouth-kawasaki.co.uk/ – The ZX10’s had lights and mirrors once. No really, and when they did, they came from Bournemouth Kawasaki. Order your Kawasaki machine, gear or parts today.

http://www.moto-master.com/ – The best brakes around are stopping Downshift this year.

http://www.dynojet.co.uk/ – Give us the figures we want to see. BHP.

www.gbracing.eu – Engine Protection

https://www.directdistributionservice… – Buy your consumables today.

www.k-tech.uk.com – Downshift turn and grip with KTECH Suspension Components

http://www.bellhelmets.com/ – The choice of Crash Helmet for Downshift. Light, Strong, ready for P1.

www.venhill.co.uk – Providing fast lines, Venhill Brake Hoses.

www.jap4performance.com – The beautiful Carbon Frame Protectors on the Downshift ZX10R’s are kindly supplied by Jap 4, check out their range.

www.reactiveparts.com – Race Parts

Downshift are backed, sponsored and partnered by Gridworx, Nettworx, 2Works traffic management, Star Delta, AUS, Duco Power and Aptus Utilities

James East is proudly sponsored by Walters Medical
Daniel Hegarty is proudly sponsored by RTR Motorcycles and Paul Thompson

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After Knockhill James split with the Brabus Opus Team due to a raised and unjustified dispute.

The following rounds saw James, Race for the Tsingtao Team for one race at Brands Hatch and after, under new sponsorship, race with the ILR Kawasaki Team at both Oulton Park and Silverstone Superstock events, Silverstone racing alongside Moto GP.

James – ‘ It has been distressing time, but I cannot thank my supporters enough for their help. Thanks to friends sourcing new sponsors, who in turn have become friends, it has been possible for me to continue. I got off of the fantastic Ian Lougher run ILR Kawasaki at Silverstone not in a position I go racing for, but with a smile on my face after some old form was shown on track in a great race with Tom Tunstall.
I know what I’m capable of, and this will be shown in the future.’

Thanks go out to the continued supporters of James and his racing career.

Charlie and Lisa

Walters Medical

Downshift England

Cougar Leathers

R&G Racing

Homechoice Carpets Leeds

IDAQ

 Silverstone was an enjoyable weekend up until race day. Qualifying didn’t go my way with 13th place but I learnt an important lesson in the fact that effort isn’t always simple or physical action, espeically not on the 1000.
I made it hard work for my self on track with pushing my braking markers back on my strong areas and this effected my lap time. In the race I made an average start but made up for it in the first turns. Later on in the lap I quickly came to realise that the level of grip I had at the rear of the bike was unpredictable, I was having moments. On lap 6 Whilst in 11th the bike stepped out suddenly and I highsided, we’re still reviewing the bike and data to find out exactly what happened. I will take a number of things from this meeting, I will be focused on using the session’s to their fullest in the future and will stick to my markers. Silverstone gave me clarity that you can earn a faster lap and race time from precisely building on what you know you are capable, and that is with every aspect of your corner entry, apex and exit. It can’t be achieved by simple physical efforts promoting only one of these at a time.
I’m looking forward to Brands Hatch GP now, it is the last round and I am going to be working hard to make sure I get my best result yet.
Thank you to my personal sponsors
Homechoice Carpets-Leeds – GHM Services – ToiletSpares.co.uk – Cougar Leathers – Bikers Division Ltd – Daytona Boots – R&G Racing – Samco Sport By Racebikebitz Ltd – Paul ‘Noddy’ Brown – Walters Medical
Thank you to my mechanic Dave for all his efforts, Colin for his advise, Mark and Sarah for the opportunity, PCR and everyone in the team.

James East Round 9 National 1000 Superstock Cadwell Park

After a successful test the week before Round 9 at Cadwell Park I was really looking forward to this race. I had followed superbikes in testing and set fast lap times so the podium was my goal.

Free Practice
We didn’t enter the track due to wet and drying conditions, we felt there was no need to take a risk on a track which would be dry for the rest of the weekend.

Qualifying 1
Light rain was falling on a dry track so I quickly put in a respectable time of 1:31:7 on lap 3 before returning to the pits shortly after due to a damp track.
The session finished with me in 1st in group A by 0.9 and 7th overall as the track was dry for longer in the group B letting others better my time.

Qualifying 2
I got down to a time of 1:30:9 which I wasn’t happy with. I rushed the session and didn’t find the space I needed to do the times I thought I was capable of. This put me 8th on the grid but I knew I could improve.

Warm up
I tried some different lines in warm up which made it easier to get through the last sector, this made me feel better for the race.

Race
I got a great start from 8th and was up to 6th. Lap 2 I moved up to the leading group and fought off Simon Andrews to hold my position. I knew the front runners had more pace so I needed to move through to see if I could match this and stay in touch so I committed to a move on Lee Jackson at Turn 3 ‘Charlie’s but he closed the door which left me no room. I just avoided tripping over the bike but this put me on the grass. I rejoined in 18th and got up to 11th before the red flag came out for another incident.

I made a mistake, you make decisions and I made the wrong one. In the last 3 rounds I will be showing more patience and working to turn my pace in to results we are capable of and put us on the podium. Idaq Motorsport and PCR did a great job so thank you to them and all of my personal sponsors.

Silverstone 200
We entered the Silverstone 200 meeting supporting MotoGP as a test for the National Superstock round there later on in the season.
We had warm weather and sunshine for the full meeting and my first ride at Silverstone on the Kawasaki ZX10R.

As many laps as possible were needed to learn the long flat Arena GP circuit so the aim of the game for every session was to stay out for as long as possible and make any changes needed after the session.
We quickly got to pace and was in to the 2:11’s from the first session.

Qualifying
We made some changes for the better with the bike to make it turn faster and qualified well amongst the array of bike including superbikes on the 4^th row with a low 2:11.

Race 1
I did a 2:10:9 on lap 4 but came in to some trouble when tipping in to the ultra fast maggots corner at 160mph I got stuck in to a fake neutral between 5^th and 4^th, the bike came around on me and forces me forward into the gravel. I had to lay the bike down before I hit the barrier.

Race 2
We had made some changes again which made the bike turn better and hold a line again. I did a 2:10:5 on lap 2 but on lap 3 another rider crashed in front of me at the Vale chicane and I had nowhere to go, hitting the bike and was thrown from mine.

‘We had some bad luck but we will have good pace come round 11 to push for the podium. Thank you to my personal sponsors and WaltersMedical for coming on board for this round’.

 

Donington Park
Friday was as wet as it gets, and the forecast showed rain throughout the weekend. I just did a few laps in this session to make sure the bike was straight from the Silverstone off. The bike was prepared and was running perfectly.

Qualifying 1 It was wet again. This was the first time I had ridden the bike competitively in the wet and we quickly found that the setup we predicted didn’t work. I couldn’t turn the bike and had next to no grip.
Unfortunately the slick Donington surface caught me out on the exit of the old hairpin and I had a high side. The bike was relatively un damaged but later we would realise the bike had an engine problem from the crash and we would need a new engine, which we were unable to source so I was forced to sit out the rest of the weekend.

‘I was obviously devastated with having to sit out this round. We were generating really good momentum in the season and recently have experienced some bad luck and knock backs however I will not let it affect my actions for the final two rounds of the season at Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP. Consistency will allow us to be on the podium as my pace is fast enough. I will need to qualify well and ride patient and precise races of which I know I am capable of. I’ve got 3 weeks now to prepare for Silverstone and I will arrive there ready. Thank you to my family, my personal sponsors, my team and everyone for their support.’

Thank you to my personal sponsors.
Homechoice Carpets-Leeds – GHM Services – ToiletSpares.co.uk – Cougar Leathers – Bikers Division Ltd – Daytona Boots – R&G Racing – Samco Sport By Racebikebitz Ltd – Paul ‘Noddy’ Brown – Walters Medical

Following a brilliant test on Wednesday 14th August at Cadwell Park we will be at the cicuit this bank holiday weekend from Friday to Monday 23rd to the 26th of August 2013.

We had a successful test where we worked hard all day to generate as much feel as we could from the bike. We achieved this, I could turn fast and meet apex’s and finished the day on a 1:30:8 which would of been good enough for 3rd on the front row of the grid for the race in 2012. More importantly this was achieved on tyres that had done 25 laps or more so the pace is consistant and strong.
I want to win, I think we deserve it and I want it more than anybody so I’m going to take it.
Thanks to PCR Performance for preparing the bike and the whole entire Idaq Motorsport Team for collectively making such a great package.
Also thank you to my personal sponsors. Lets get on the podium.
Homechoice Carpets-Leeds – Idaq.com – GHM Services – ToiletSpares.co.uk -Cougar Leathers – Bikers Division Ltd – Daytona Boots – R&G Racing – Samco Sport By Racebikebitz Ltd – Paul ‘Noddy’ Brown

James East – Idaq Kawasaki – National Superstock – Round 8 – Oulton Park
Back to Oulton Park for round 8 and under turbulent skies. The rain would hold off but an unlucky finish for me.

Free Practice
1:40:439 2^nd in group A. 8^th overall.
Free Practice at Oulton Park quickly made me realise this is still a learning year for me. Even though we used the settings from round one, my riding showed has changed and these settings no longer gave me the turning I needed.
We would change the ride height of the bike and damping sessions after this. Ready for qualifying.

Qualifying 1
1:39:307 2^nd Group A. 8^th overall.
I improved by over a second but lacked the feel from the front end I needed to drop my times further. We would trawl the data further after this session and come to a conclusion for QP2.

Qualifying 2
1:39:199 Group A 5^th. 14^th Overall.
I simply didn’t get my qualifying lap in. It seemed every lap I entered I either came across someone or had a moment. I improved but only slightly.
We improved the bike which was good as I knew I could push through from my qualifying position. Also after the session we quickly found some issue on the data from the point I was letting off the brake and found a solution for this in warm up so I was confident for the race.

Race
I got a great start, launched well and moved to the right of the track and went up the inside of many people.
I had a bit of a dice on the first lap with Lee Johnston but got back past at lodge and made my way forward to the leading group in 9^th position.
I made a mistake at Dears leap which sent me into a wheelie on to the start finish straight. This lost me about .8 of a second and a missed gear on the same lap put me about a second off of Daniel Johnson in front, but on the same lap at Lodge my bike cut out completely and I coasted in to pitlane.

Some wires for the ignition switch had worn and become bare. We believe that this must of surged and blew the ignition fuse turning the bike off as if you turned the key off.

I was gutted as this was yet another non score which wasn’t my fault. However I don’t think I rode well enough in the race either. I showed my inexperience and I need to work on my positioning on the bike which is exactly what I will do at our next test at Cadwell Park on Wednesday 14^th August.

Either way my team worked tirelessly all weekend so I want to thank them for their efforts as well as Dave for putting in the hours for me.

Thanks go out to James’s personal sponsors.

Homechoice Carpets-Leeds – Idaq.com – GHM Services – ToiletSpares.co.uk -Cougar Leathers – Bikers Division Ltd – Daytona Boots – R&G Racing – Samco Sport By Racebikebitz Ltd – Paul ‘Noddy’ Brown

James East – Idaq Motorsport
National Superstock 1000 Round 7 Brands Hatch GP

The tipping point.

I was ready to push for a podium at my favourite track and this would happen in the glorious sunshine at the Brands Hatch GP circuit

Free Practice
I took it easy in this session as due to residential ruling everyone would practice on the Indy circuit. My time of 47.732 was good enough for 7^th overall.

Qualifying 1
I hit the GP circuit for the first time but the session was next to pointless for me. Every lap I entered it started raining so spent much of the session in the pits. With the promise of fine weather later on, the session wasn’t worth risking in the ‘iffy’ conditions.

Qualifying2

Weather reports were correct and we had sunshine for this session. The difficulty with this session was the volume of riders on track. 49 Riders were all trying to put a fast time in and I found it difficult finding space. I tried a few settings in this session as we had only had 3 laps on the GP track previously in QP1.
With 5 minutes to go I asked Dave to put the bike back to a setting I knew I could go fast on. First flying lap I went from 12^th to 8^th and the last flying lap of the session I did a 1:28:969 to put me 4^th. I didn’t think the time was good enough when I looked at the Aim Dash but was relieved it was good enough for a front row when they told me in parc ferme.

Warm Up
We changed the gearbox selector forks over night as there was significant wear on them which made me miss a few gears in QP2 and the gearbox felt good in warm up, a broken tyre warmer meant I went out on a cold rear tyre which didn’t help matters, Dave had to guess the cold pressure which ended up rising higher than expected so I was sliding around a lot and backed it off to take it easy.

Race
I was so focused prior to the race, I told myself ‘You will not get a bad start’. It was a good start and I was in third in to paddock hill bend. Tommy Aquino pushed too hard into Druids and ran wide allowing me through to 2^nd behind Adam Jenkinson.
I got great drive out of Surtees and rushed up on Jenkinson going down Pilgrims Drop making the pass into Hawthorns. I haven’t seen the brake pressure on the data for the over take but I’m sure it will be high, I came from about 3 bike lengths back to make the pass for the lead and just about held a fast line.
From here I just settled in to a steady rhythm and was still learning. My pace was good enough to keep the people behind me at bay in the low 1:29’s. I kept at this pace for the first four laps then on lap 5 I felt good to push on. I pulled a tenth or 2 to create a little bit of a gap but the whole time I kept having little moments of missing gears. On lap 6 the gearbox locked on the exit of Surtees and thankfully didn’t end up in an accident when Joe Burns hit my back wheel and rearset.

The bike went back in to gear but the rear set was bent and I was really struggling to get it in to gear. I would have to retire when the gearbox stopped selecting all together.

I am still gutted as I felt I had the pace in me to win the race, I felt really good out front seeing clear track ahead of me.
What I have taken from the Brands Hatch is confirmation that I am comfortable with the 1000cc stock machine and I will be able to push for race wins in future rounds.
I will be pushing for a front row qualifying position at Oulton Park and then get to the front early on to pull a gap. I really want to win. I want to be a superbike rider and work to win in that category to, so it’s now time to prove I am capable.

Thank you to everyone who is making it possible for me to be competing. And thank you to my Dad for always supporting me.

Thanks go out to James’s Personal Sponsors
Homechoice Carpets-Leeds – Idaq.com – GHM Services – ToiletSpares.co.uk -Cougar Leathers – Bikers Division Ltd – Daytona Boots – R&G Racing – Samco Sport By Racebikebitz Ltd – Paul ‘Noddy’ Brown