By Carly Rathmell
April 13 2005

Dave Johnson and his Xpress Racing team suffered mixed fortunes at the weekend, which saw the 21-year-old from Leicester suffer a minor technical problem in the National Superstock race, forcing him to withdraw from sixth place.

Looking strong and confident throughout practice and qualifying, Johnson was looking comfortable in the in the 18-lap race.

Dave Johnson - photo © Raceline Photography

Locked in a tight eight bike battle, the young Australian was at the front of the harassing bunch when, on lap eleven, he was struck with a problem. Begrudgingly pulling out of the race, Johnson commented, “Although I didn’t finish the race, I’m still really happy with the progress that we have made over the weekend. The bike felt fantastic on race day, and it was a really tough battle with the horrendously strong winds - throughout practice and qualifying on the previous days - which affected everything.

“So many riders crashed over the weekend because of the weather I was being a little cautious, as I didn’t want to throw the bike down the road. Thruxton always produces some fantastic racing, and I had a number of bikes behind me when I eventually pulled in. I’m not too disappointed, and know that we are still very early in the championship yet to be worrying too much.”

Speaking with Team Manager Nigel Broomhall, he said, “We have found a lot of positives from the weekend, and are looking forward to going to Dave’s local track, Mallory, in a couple of weeks’ time. The problem we had was only minor, and was easily fixable. Obviously we were upset not to have finished the race, as it will be an extremely close championship this year, but we are feeling confident with the bike, and the team are all working fantastically well together to move things forward.”

The next round for Johnson is at Mallory Park, on the 24th April. He is still lying tenth in the championship, with a long way to go, and anything can happen yet.

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