DJ Back at Brands with Xpress racing for a Start to 2006

Xpress Racing were back in action for a one off race at the 1st round of Metzeler National Superstock Championship with Australian rider David Johnson who has signed for RT Motorsports Yamaha to race in their European domestic Superbike Championship.

In a last minute decision made literally two days before the meeting, Xpress Racing decided to dust off their Suzuki GSXR 1000 K3 race bike to give David an outing prior to heading off to Europe. “The bike is three years old now” said Nigel Broomhall, Xpress Racing team manager, “so we had no intentions of going out there to win. The whole propose was to have some fun and give David the opportunity to clock up some racing miles before he heads off to Europe to begin his Superbike assault.”

The weekend had a troubled start with limited track time in practice due to few minor problems, and David getting used to the 3 year old bike again, having not ridden it since his 3rd place finish at Croft last season. First qualifying also resulted in an early shower for David and a lot of work for his support team as he crashed out at Paddock Hill bend. “I was going well in qualifying running in the top three, when I missed a gear into turn one which meant that I was carrying way to much speed and ran off into the deep gravel there and the bike just spat me straight off!” said David.

The whole team worked flat out to get the bike back together in time for second qualifying, only to have to sit it out due to rain. “It was totally pointless sending David out in the rain, he was never going to go any faster and the forecast was for a dry race. At this point prudence seemed the sensible option.” said Nigel Broomhall. David’s early quick laps had meant that he was at least starting from the forth row, but he still had his work cut out on race day.

As the lights went off David got away to an amazing start, mixing it up with the front-runners and by the second lap had progressed to 5th place. He then set off to catch the lead pack but was struggling to make headway. By mid race distance David was locked in a ten-bike battle for 4th place with positions changing lap by lap, in what was a very exciting race. By the last lap David was holding a solid 6th place and decided to settle for that.

Johnson was happy with the result saying, “I was struggling with the set up as I only had a few laps before the race. We just didn’t have time to set the old girl up but I’m still very happy with the out come of the weekend. I would like to thank Nigel, Ceri, Russ and Simo for all their hard work in getting me out there!!”

Nigel Broomhall added, “It was a weekend filled with mixed emotions for us all. Thinking we were all going home after first qualifying and then to finish 6th in the race was just an amazing result for David, and a tribute to all the hard work that went into getting him there. We would like to do a few more rounds this season with David if we can find a sponsor to help support us.”