By Louise Cain
April 20 2006

Hudson Kennaugh, on board the Carbon Can Company Yamaha, took his first race win in the Metzeler National Superstock Championship at Thruxton, a circuit he has never raced at before.

The Superstock race was action packed, with a three rider crash bringing out the safety car on the first lap. Kennaugh had got off the line in third place, and held this position behind the safety car until racing was able to commence. Once the action was under way again, Kennaugh came under attack and dropped back to fifth place. As the race went on he fought his way forward, and actually crossed the line in second place behind Howie Mainwaring.

The action wasn’t to stop there, as Mainwaring had put a hard move on the race leader Adrian Coates mid way through the race. This move resulted in Coates crashing out, and it was also executed under yellow flags that were showing due to another crash. Race Control therefore gave Mainwaring a 20 second penalty, relegating him to thirteenth place and moving Kennaugh up to the position of race winner.

“Finally a dry weekend, that is all I can say!” laughed Kennaugh. “We had a good build up, the team worked really hard, and we tried lots of things in practice which helped us. The more time we are given on track the faster we get. If we had more time I think we could be faster. I was settling in there and I got the opportunity. I could have won it outright, but it was nice and close.”

The first time Kennaugh saw the Thruxton race circuit was when the team arrived to set up on Thursday before the race weekend, and it was lack of track knowledge that nearly got the better of him. “I should have kept the door closed, but lack of track knowledge caught me out - but it was good to get a second on the podium. I would have settled for that when I arrived here. I have to say thanks to my team, Simon and John/Oz - they have worked really hard this weekend, and I couldn’t have got on the podium without them.”

The team and the bike are both working well all of which contributed to the podium finish. “The Yamaha is just really good on the tyres. It is a good bike and it turns really well. I had gearing that made me struggle down the back straight - it wasn’t the bike’s pace. It was just good on the tyre, and we knew that later in the race we could stick our neck out and get a good result - and that is what happened,” he explained. “The other bikes are using their tyres and that is going to help us at other circuits that are more technical than this, which will help us even more - especially if it doesn’t rain!”

The fourth round of the championship is at Oulton Park, once again a track that Kennaugh doesn’t know, but there is an official test there this coming weekend which will allow the team to set the bike up and him to learn the circuit. “We got a test at Oulton and the next race is there, so if we can just get a look in on these tracks as we go along, then we will be set up going to the race like we were at Donington. Unless something untoward happens, like a dry weekend and then rain, we should be up there most of the time from here on in,” said a confident Kennaugh.

The fourth round of the Metzeler National Superstock Championship will be at Oulton Park, with practice and qualifying on the 29th/30th April, and race day on Monday 1st May.

www.hudsonkennaugh.com

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Hudson would like to thanks his sponsors:
RST leathers; AGV; Bad Boy; Carbon Can Co.; Raceways Yamaha