By Carly Rathmell
May 10 2004

Enzo di Clemente and his Sendo Ducati Dienza Performance Team had a mixed weekend of results at the second round of the British Superbike Championships at Brands Hatch, on Easter Monday. Varied weather conditions throughout the weekend made settings and tyre choice very difficult.

picture by Chris Martin @ www.brakingzone.com

Dean Thomas had a good start to the weekend and was setting very good times at the top end of the table. He remained at second place on the score sheet for the majority of the qualifying sessions. That was until the Rizla Suzuki riders John Reynolds and Yukio Kagayama and the HM Plant Honda rider Michael Rutter came in and put qualifiers on and managed to get some flying laps under their belts, pushing Dean down to fifth.

Each time Dean came into the pits and fitted a qualifier on his sighting lap or fast lap someone had a crash directly in front of him. Stuart Easton, Glen Richards and Kieran Clarke all fell as they exited Graham Hill Bend, each on separate laps, forcing Dean to sit up and avoid collision each time. Then Tommy Hill went down heavily at Clearways, which put a stop to Dean’s chances of putting the Sendo Ducati on the front row.

Still, on the second row and sat behind the pole sitter Sean Emmett, Dean was confident that a good start would put him up there and fighting for a podium position. Racing on the short circuit at Brands, they were running only on a 1.2-mile track, so lap times were quick and the riders were lapping the circuit in the 46s to 47s.

On lap two, with the pack still bunched together, MonsterMob’s Sean Emmett got a huge slide as he came out of the first corner, down the hill towards Druids, and lost it. Kicking the bike left then right it finally spat him off right in the path of Hawk Kawasaki rider Glen Richards. The safety car had to be brought out whilst the debris was cleared up. Dean and other riders did well to miss Glen and his bike as they slid down the middle of the track.

The riders were clustered together and Dean was sitting in fourth place waiting for the safety car to go back into pit lane. A good drive onto the straight and it was underway again. Dean was passed by Scott Smart and was left riding his own race in fifth position. Struggling with tyres, Dean was fighting with the bike to try and bring it home but as he entered one of the fastest parts of the track, Clearways - the corner onto the start finish straight, the Ducati bit and spat Dean high in the air. Landing heavily on his head, Dean’s race was over and done with a nasty crash, but fortunately he was up on his feet - albeit somewhat dazed by the accident.

The accident didn’t faze Dean as he lined up on the grid for the second race, riding on his number two bike which he hadn’t used all season. This proved a big risk and, still suffering from a severe headache from race one, Dean just wanted to bring it home in one piece and gain some valuable championship points. He managed to finish the race in a brave eighth place, which puts him seventh equal in the overall championship tables.

Commenting, Dean said, “Obviously I’m disappointed with the way things have occurred today. I really could have done without the crash in the first race. I was fighting with the bike on every lap, as the tyre just wanted to let go. It finally got the better of me in one of the worst possible places and highsided me right over the top of the bike. I took a bit of a battering and my number one bike came out a little worse for wear.

“I was on the number two bike for the second race, which hasn’t even turned a wheel all season. I couldn’t get to grips with it and just wanted to bring it and myself home in one piece. Hopefully we will get some testing done before the next round at Snetterton in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Speaking with Enzo, he said, “It’s been a strange weekend. Dean took a pretty bad knock to the head in the first race. We had a dilemma with the rear tyre in the first race, which caused the accident. We changed to a slightly different compound for race two, but the bike wasn’t set up the same as his number one bike so we just had to make sure that he brought it home. I know as the season progresses that we will be up there in the top five and fighting for podium places. Things should move forward before the next round and we should get the results that we deserve.”