The Movuno.com Halsall Racing Suzuki team is ready for the first home round of the year as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship moves to Oulton Park this Bank Holiday weekend.
Fresh from the official test at the Cheshire track last week, Bolton-based entrepreneur Martin Halsall and the squad are looking forward to returning to action, with Superbike rider Tommy Bridewell and the team’s Pirelli National Superstock 1000 rider Tom Ward hoping for solid results.
Bridewell is looking to build on his two top 10 finishes at Brands Hatch Indy last month, and is feeling confident after the test, where the team worked hard to iron out a few niggles with the Suzuki GSX-R1000.
And he is keen to return to a track which he enjoys. “I’m looking forward to it, it’s always been a good track for me and can bring some really close racing,” he said.
“It’s a real rider’s track, quite demanding and it takes a lot of focus but it’s definitely one I enjoy.
“The test obviously helped us massively, it gave us a chance to eliminate little issues we’d found and I think we’ve now got a much better understanding of where we are and what we need to do to get where we want to be.
“I’d say our race pace looks very, very promising and I will be going in as I do every weekend, pushing as hard as I can to get as high we can, although ultimately I will be fighting as hard as possible for a podium.”
Tom Ward, meanwhile, is also keen to climb higher up the order this weekend, as he continues to get to grips with the 1000cc machine. Having already made strong progress in his first season in the championship, he too believes he has benefited from the test.
“We definitely had a decent day at Oulton last week, we used it to try a few different things to help move forward,” he said.
“We achieved a lot and I think every step we made was positive, so it certainly puts us in a nice position ahead of the weekend.
“I’m still learning about the bike and the team is working hard gathering data every time we go out, so I feel we can probably progress more this weekend. Oulton Park is a track where I haven’t necessarily scored my best results, but it’s not too bad and I like it. I’m hoping we can have a good, solid weekend.”
Team owner Halsall is hoping his team’s local round will bring further improvements, and is feeling confident, in light of the progress made at the test.
“The team really benefitted from some valuable track time at last week’s test, and we’re continuing to push forward with the development of the Suzuki,” he said.
“Tommy is eager to break into top five and challenge for podiums this weekend, and the team has been working tirelessly to nail a few issues and make the improvements we believe we needed to make.
“Tom continues to make steady progress on the Superstock bike and having already started to make big strides forward, he’ll be keen to break into the points this weekend.
“We’ve got some exciting things lined up for the team following our announcement this week that Colin Wright will be coming in as team manager from July, and everyone is working hard to ensure we come out fighting for our local round at Oulton.”